From SimonG: "The Witch of the Westmorland" - Two 28mm Vignettes (75 points)

After a few week's absence from posting I am finally back with my centrepiece for this challenge, a pair of 28mm vignettes based on the song "The Witch of the Westmorland"(1). 

This song made a great impression on me the first time I heard it off Kate Rusby's 2016 album "Life in a Paper Boat". It is highly evocative of time (I'd say 500-600CE), and place -- Rheged, what is now Cumbria and the Lake District. 

Having spent several months selecting and sourcing miniatures I created two vignettes on live edge Yew plinths. I've included two short videos so you can get a sense of the full vignette in each case.

The male mounted and dismounted figures are Victrix late Roman unarmoured cavalry and Romano British infantry, with some kit bashing to match the heads and arms and add the bandaging. The female figures are both 3D prints from the designer M3DM, her Goddess of Virtue and her Druid Centaur. The hounds are from CheckPoint Miniatures and the hawk is from Reaper.

For a closer look at these pieces it makes sense to follow the song. 

"Pale was the wounded night that bore the Roman Shield" (2)

Don't look too closely as the leatherwork and boots on the two figures are different!

"Turn, turn your stallions head til his red mane flies in the wind"

Red is strictly speaking not a particularly realistic horse mane colour and usually is sun bleaching on a chestnut or sorrel, anyway I had fun trying to get this effect but it's hard to photograph as the bright light masks the shades!

"And he said, lie down my brindled hound and rest ye my good grey hawk"

Brindling isn't too hard to replicate, not sure if wolfhounds can be brindled however, usually applies to a shorter haired breed I think. As there are no grey hawks specifically native to the UK (as far as I am aware) I chose to make this one a peregrine falcon -- that's quite a bird to have at your beck and call!

"And it's down to the water's brim he'd borne the Roman shield"

Modelling water is where most of the effort in this job has been, and I've still got a lot to learn. I did like sourcing a bunch of neat photo etched reeds and some lovely paper water flowers. The main water is done using Aqua Magic which I discovered doesn't like to set when constrained as I had to do using a jerry rigged dam as shown in the picture above. I also hoped to get some good reflections off the water surface but didn't realise that this would need a darker shade underneath than the light stones I selected -- oh well, lessons learned.

"And wet rose she from the lake and fast and fleet went she.

One half the form of a maiden fair and a jet black mare's body"

Lucky to have found that M3DM sculpt -- it's exactly as the source for the song suggests -- tales of antlered women with bodies of deer, perhaps based on sightings of red deer in the lakes. There is an inordinate amount of fine detail on these figures including one braid which had snapped, I patched in a spare from the back up figure I purchased and it's at least something (it's her left side braid). I also only discovered in photographing the figure that's she's wearing more of a bra top than a vest -- at least my styling keeps her respectable!

"For I see by the briny blood that flows you're wounded in the field"

Basic green stuff bandage and some subtle blood work!

"She stood in a gown of velvet blue bound round with a silver chain"

One of the best sculpted female faces I've seen, albeit a rather static pose, but  being from the same designer the look of both faces is similar. For hair I tried for a Yffing (3) chestnut :-) There's some wonderful fine hair detail about the face that was a pleasure to paint.

* * * * * * * * * * * 

So hopefully by now you've had a chance to listen to the song and follow along with the models. I certainly had fun planning and executing this project and I hope the results do justice to the source material

For points I am claiming two mounted 28mm figures (20 points), two foot (10 points) and four creatures (20 points) plus a 20 point bonus for love in paradise -- the song does after all say that "she's kissed his pale lips once and twice and three times round again" -- I think that's a worshipful, healing sort of kiss as befits paradise! I also relied on the female centaur druid to fly us straight to the third sphere! So with that bonus, if permitted, i get my hard earned 70 points!

Hopefully you enjoy these pieces as much as I do. Now what shall I plan next?

(1) The song is by Archie Fisher from 1976, it's been covered by many others, there are quite a few variants on the words but I'm using Kate's version, and even that has differences in what folks claim to hear!

(2) One of the specific differences being that the original and most versions sing "Rowan Shield". I've got problems with this. Why make a shield of Rowan, it is very hard and lighter than oak but not as common and I've not found evidence of this as a shield material. Or why have a Rowan sigil on your shield? Kate's singing "Roman shield"(i.e. a shield in the style of or dating to Romano-British times) makes perfect sense to me and that is how I modelled it (although an infantry shield when mounted is a little impractical!)

(3) This is of course a reference to Nicola Griffith's Menewood, which I cannot recommend too highly, although an interest in the specific details of seventh century life and warfare is a pre-requisite!

TeemuL: I'm not sure what all this is, this entry is just staggering! May be it is the flu or the excellent entry, all the backstory, sourcing the minis, but I feel a bit light headed... I guess it is better, if you just read, watch and listen, my words are unnecessary. :) Take 5 bonus points for the dioramas!

From MartinC: Jolly Good Day to Invade Zululand (136 points)

It's been a weird week. I was 58 last week, and so was my brother in law.  As a result we has a 4 day party. So not much time to paint. Have done some more Zulu war stuff.

The trick with  colonial wars is to set difficulties for the imperial forces so that they can not perform perfectly and slaughter the zulus 

Columns of Brits will advance and irregular cavalry will act as scouts. These are poorly trained and will report on clouds of dust,which could be zulus, animals or nothing. These 2 herds of wildebeest,which will distract scouts and send officers on hunting expeditions,away from their duties.

Same for Zebras

Amongst the irregular cavalry are 3 bases of Natal Mtd Police, 1 base of Natal Carabiners, 1 base of Natal Hussars and 1 base of Stanger Horse. There are only minor differences in the uniforms.

There were 2 squadrons of Mtd infantry in the war, taken from various regiments. I have one dismounted and have another to paint.

Assorted officers and standards

Off to paint more of the house now.

Scores

34 mtd 10mm figures = 102

12 foot 10mm figures = 12

20 zebras and wildebeest = 20

Total = 134

TeemuL: Ouch, a four day party at age of 58! Anyway, I guess congratulations are in order and some colourful British are very appropriate way to celebrate. Zebras and other wildlife are welcome, too. Please accept two bonus points, let's say they come from the flags and very nice minis. Are all of the Pendraken, animals, too?

By the way, I'll be 47 next month, just after the AHPC ends, so I can't blame my low output on that...

From RayR: Retreat from Moscow - 1st Portuguese regt (42 points)

Yep! More Retreat from Moscow figures, and more French allies too. This time we're heading to south western Europe, to Portugal. In Ney's Third Army were two regiments of Portuguese, the 1st and 2nd regiments. This is my version of the 1st. who were in Brigadier Gengoult's brigade along with the 24th Light Infantry.

The Portuguese Legion were formed from Portuguese nationals in 1808, with a strength of 6 Infantry and 2 Cavalry regts. They were re-organized in 1811 into 3 Infantry and 1 Cavalry regt. The Legion lost so many me in Russia that they were disbanded in 1813. 

Once again no company (that I've found anyway) sell the Portuguese Legion in greatcoats. Perry minis make 1 figure in pack FN171, so that's out. So I came up with the idea of buying some plastic Victrix Waterloo Brits wearing a Belgic shako and cutting and filing those down to kinda match what they wore. Its not a bad match if I say so myself. The next problem I came across was the heads were a little small to match the Foundry figures I was going to decapitate.......so Warlord French is was, but they still didn't fit because the heads had no collar. So once again, my trusty pack of Green Stuff came out, to make some scarves and collars. 

The Warlord figures are a little smaller than the Perry's, so I squirted some No More Nails from a tube onto each base, then gently pressed the figure onto the base, its hardly noticeable.

So onto the points, its a nice and easy one.......8 figures at 5 pts each makes 40 points, maybe a few extra for the conversion work, if Teemu's feeling generous??

TeemuL: Congratulations Ray, you have now reached your Challenge target! Let's celebrate that with two bonus points to make your total a nice round number. You seem to have gone the hard way to get those Portuguese wear the greatcoats, lots of chopping and sculpting. Or are they British with Belgic shakos, French heads and some green stuff? Still very devoted and the brushwork is brilliant as ever.

From DaveD: It’s still snowing, but the Veldt is filling up (161 points)

I am still cracking on with various items for both the Ardennes and now for the Zulu war (oh and some Naps)

First up are the rest of the infantry to finish my Volksgrenadier company. When I looked at the organisation I found I had missed a stand from each of the two previous platoons having done 5 rather 6, so I had to do 8 this time to make things up . I also added the company HQ and the 2IC 

The shell holes are also new additions this week - picked up from the bits box at Pendraken 

35 figures in these 

 

So here is the full company and the Pz Grenadiers .

I can now add some more support items , HMG’s and Mortars and of course some 88’s and ATG’s .

 

Next up are more vehicles for the US forces 

It’s the US army - you need jeeps 

One if my favourite vehicles the M8 Greyhound armoured car.(or3)

My other favourite US Vehicle 2 x M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer- don’t call it tank , cause it isn’t !

Got to sneak in an M16 AAA halftrack - 4 x 50cals ouch.

Oops - is that Skorzemy’s Kommandos pointing them in the wrong direction?

 

I have a decent amount of US vehicles completed now . Well it is now covering nearly 8 feet (or 2.4 metres ) as a column 😆😆

Is that Henry Fonda in that Piper Cub ? No they seemed to film “The Battle of Bulge” in Spain in summer, no snow involved  …

So for the Ardennes I now need more German vehicles  and guns , and more US infantry . All of which are in the stash which is good .

And now to the Southern Hemisphere. Last week I had most of the lads done for the first regiment. I was able to get things prepped up ready for starting on the next 4 after my holiday , so I took the opportunity to add the extra 35 figures (only needed 28 but a few more to fill the bases was the aesthetic choice)  in 3 bases to finish it off

And here is the full iButho  the uMbonamvi the Seers of Evil.

The frontage as deployed here is 360mm - 16 inches , so it’s taking up a decent bit of space

Thus unit represents about 10% of the initial Zulu army - so only another 13 various sized iButho (regiments)  to go - time to crack on .

 

The next lot 420 Zulus ready to meet the brushes 

Scores :-

35 x 15mm inf = 70 pts 

7 x 15mm vehicles = 56 pts 

35 x 10mm inf - 35 pts  (and 35 to colonial duel) 

TeemuL: It still snows and the minis are still small, all is well! Looking forward to see the 420 Zulus next week...

Your column looks impressive, almost like 1:1 ratio of real columns and well enough for your winter table. And your Zulus look good, too, they need a bit different table to game with - a lot of empty space I guess, because the army will need a lot of room to deploy.

From MattW: Στρατηγός, Αχαϊκός οπλίτης, ψιλοί (122 points)

Stratigós, Achaean hoplites and skirmishers 

More additions to the Greeks last week, my first command base, skirmishes and Achaean hoplites. Again miniatures from Immortal Miniatures now sold by Warlord Games. 

Hoplites 

Psiloi

Hoplites

24 x 28mm miniatures @ 5 points = 120

Total 120

Cheers

Matt 

TeemuL: I do hope the title doesn't contain any curse words or other inappropiate content. :) Well, of course it doesn't, we are all well mannered AHPC participants and I'm glad the rest of the entry is easily readable for me. And the photos are easily watched, very nice photos of very nice minis on a very nice scenery! I'll throw couple of bonus points for the excellent base work and athmosphere of the photos - I need to paint my hoplites at some point, too!

From KenR: 1/700 HMS Punjabi (Ship of the week) (40 points)

Well this Challenge has turned into a ship fest against all my planning but with work commitments getting through a ship a week is a challenge in itself at the moment. It's definitely helping me progress the ship part of the Narvik Project.

This week I present HMS Punjabi, the final one of 4 Tribal Class Destroyers for the project and this one is a 1/700 scale Trumpeter kit, just like last week's entry. I've opted for a dark grey lower hull with light grey upper on this one and it does make quite a nice contrast.

The ship spent its career in home waters and on the Northern Convoy routes, she was involved in the 2nd Battle of Narvik where she was badly damaged, losing all power for over an hour. She was lost escorting Convoy PQ15 in May 1942, the deck watch believed they had see a mine and ordered a 15 degree turn to avoid it, unfortunately it was foggy and without knowing the ship turned in front of the British Battleship KGV. The larger ship sliced Punjabi in two however the impact and explosions of depth charges on the Destroyer caused serious damage to the KGV.

So that's another 40 points to the total, I'm a country mile of my target but at least I'm getting a bit done each week. With this ship complete, I have 5 more Destroyers and Warspite to do. With 3 weeks to go, I'll need more than a ship a week and the Warspite is a huge job on its own. Never mind a half done unit of Prussian Landwher !

Anyway, I'm going to aim for two ships next week, until then here are the 4 Tribals for the project.

TeemuL: Let's start with a safe and familiar first entry of the day, 1/700 ship. Thank you Ken, I know there are lots of followers on this project. And two ships a week next? I just hope that those people who are waiting for the Prussian Landwehr and other 28mm models are not neglected too much.

It is interesting to see, that even when those four ships are more or less similar, your skightly different colour choices make them all individuals, but they still look like a group and they all look very real. Splendid job!

Thursday

Yeah, quite an simple header this week. My vacation was good, but on Monday morning I got a flu and have been more or less ill since then. So no history lessons, I just don't have energy for that. There were some questions about snowshoes last week, so here are couple of photos.

Here's my son and his snowshoes. The trail we walked was well trodden and the snow shoes were not necessary for most of the time, but it makes it easier to climb up and down (there are some spikes at the bottom).

And these are mine. Pay attention to the camouflage pattern, something wargamers surely want to add to their models. ;) As you can see, modern snowshoes doesn't look like tennis rackets and are quite easy and comfortable to use. It is good to have ski sticks, too, gives you balance and helps if the snow is very deep and you fall.

Of course, if there is snow and it is dry enough (meaning it is cold enough), then two pairs of woollen socks are all you need. They are an excellent insulation, the coldness stays away and warmth stays inside, so the snow doesn't melt.

--- In other news ---

Here in southern Finland we don't have any snow anymore and temperature is couple of degrees above zero. The Thursday crew has quite a lot of posts, as usual.