Welcome Back to Monday

Read all about upcoming adventures from Team Monday

Since people liked my Kathleen Edwards video, I thought I go with another female Canadian singer songwriter.  My family and I (well daughter may have fallen asleep by then) saw Sarah Harmer play the Regina Folk Fest years back and it was magic, a beautiful evening under the trees in a downtown park close to the sage.  She and her band were just great.  With Nautical Week coming up I thought we could use a warm gulf breeze to blow us into port

The Votes Are In for the "L'Amour' Theme Round!

I was a little anxious about how this theme would come off, but the participants rose to the occasion and made the 'L'amour' a wonderful success. The entries were  engaging, imaginative and even cringingly provocative (cough, Ray, cough).

In regards to the votes, it was a very tight race, with only a few points separating the majority of the participants. You can see the results here.

Running up to the podium positions we have:

Michael's hilarious 'Can't Help Loving You'

 Greg's wry 'It All Depends On The Caption'

and Ray's head-shaking entry, 'Tamsin O'Leary'

Fabulous work guys!

Okay, as I mentioned before, only five points separated the top three positions. In Third Place we have Sidney's courtly 'The Proposal' set in his charmingly fictional 17th century Flemish town of Laarden. 

 

In Second Place is Millsy's completely cracked monster masterpiece 'The Luncheon at the Swamp' 

In addition to be hung in 'The Loo' Mr. Mills will receive 50 additional points to add to his tally.

 Finally, in First Place we have Iannick's wonderfully whimsical 'The Princess and the Frog'.

Iannick will receive 75 bonus points and a gift certificate from the ever-industrious Byron's 'SG2 Creations'. Congratulations Iannick and thank you for submitting this wonderful vignette for our L'amour theme round.

 

Please join me in congratulating the winners and all the entrants! Well done!!

Next Sunday we have the 'Nautical' theme round, and I know we have some pretty impressive entries on tap for that. Remember, Saturday midnight is the deadline for submissions.

Okay, keep your brushes lashing and have a great week everyone!

From DaveD - Sudan - The Mahdi! (20 Points)

Its been a reasonably productive few weeks - with lots on the mostly done pile. These have finally been nudged over the line - so apologies to the Big Snowball, the SnowLord himself for stacking them up today.. but hey I will bank the 450 points for the week.

With all my focus back on the Sudan I thought it was time for the main protagonist to make his appearance so here is the Mahdi himself.

Well I say "The" Mahdi... But this is the second figure for the collection. Well you always need competing Mahdis don't you? ...well you do in my mad world. I also want some table top options to confuse the Imperial player as well. Always nice to confuse the wargamers helicopter view with a bit of the "fog of war" - is that where the Mahdi really is? Which is the the true Mahdi? Mind it sounds like a good way to start a civil or religious war too.

Stirring up a storm with the Beja

 28mm Perry Miniature with two helpers.

Ok, so 4 weeks to go - lets see what else we have in the tank eh..

That was a excellent Saturday gambit Dave. Five posts, with almost 500 points, and what a wonderful vignette to end it all with. Brilliant stuff.

I really like your idea of having more than one Mahdi to keep players on their toes. I can see this mechanic being used for other periods/scenarios as well - I'm filing that one away for future use, thank you.

Okay, next up will be the announcement of the winners of the L'amour Theme Round so stay tuned for that.

 
 

From DaveD - Naval Brigade and Guard Skirmishers (95 points)

I have now moved onto to the new Brigade for the operation around Suakin. This saw the Guards Brigade enter the the campaign. So to start I have the skirmish elements on sabot bases. I am using these to give me some options as there can be a number of skirmish units in the game - so I can use 3 4 - 5 - 6 figures per base (and fill in with bush/rocks as needed) depending on the size of the overall game. I also think they have an appeal on the less regular shaped based.

 

12 Skirmishers for the Guards Brigade. (Perry Miniatures)

Plus a root in the lead pile recently revealed some classic "Old School" Connoisseur Naval Brigade. I intend my Naval Brigade units to be made up from a range of manufactures and dress - just to give some diverse interest. These appeal to the early  teen in me - which is when I first saw these in the flesh! 

So altogether 19 x 28mm foot.

I am occasionally working on a naval gun team, with the guys pulling the Gatling gun and limber - got a good bit of conversion work to do on it to get it how I want. But for inspiration I occasionally watch this:

I worked for number of year with Petty Officer "Smudger" Smith who competed in this a number of times in is Navy Career... he always said it was "The" hardest thing ever! and to prove it he would wave at you with a missing half finger - removed by the gun carriage!

Here we are, jumping from one shell crater to another, admiring the sights of Dave's work. Fabulous stuff. It's great to see the Guards' arrival on the scene. I like the sabot bases with the rock and bush inserts - very clever. The boys from the Naval Brigade are excellent as well. I quite like their cutlass bayonets and round hats. 

 95 points to add to your daily tally, but wait, there's yet another on the horizon...

From ChrisH - Yu Jing and a few more Z hunters (50 Points)

Well as I thought I am running out of time to paint due to work commitments. But I have a few miniatures from the Infinity universe and a couple of post modern Zed Hunters to add to the ones from before.

To be honest I have barely had time to look at the fabulous eye candy that keeps appearing let alone make a comment. I was asked to come up with more points well I think that I may be able to get to 900 but little more. Points wise 10 X 5 = 50. Just got a new phone so using it this time. Hope you all like them, I do.

Great work Chris! I quite like the purple armour of the Infinity rankers juxtaposed against the white of the heroes. Did you freehand those hexes on their bases? If so, yikes, that takes more than a bit of discipline! Also, who makes the Zombie hunters? Those are nice looking models as well.

50 more points for your final push to 900!

From DaveD - Sudan - 10th Hussars (241 points)

Here we have the arrival of the last major cavalry unit for the imperial forces - the 10th Hussars. These are my old favourite 28mm Connoisseur Miniatures on a mix of various manufactures horses. The 10th had more grey horses when first deployed so I have added in more than usual. They provide a nice contrast to the 19th as these have khaki tunic and blue pants with yellow belts. One figure had a spot of casting trouble with the right arm and I have remade that with the soldering iron  and added a pistol into his hand as if firing the starting pistol. 24x28mm Cavalry

So that gives me the 9th Bengal Lancers,19th Hussars and 10th Hussars, so i thought you might like a group shop.

That leaves a small 12 figure unit of Egytian Lancers and a company of 6 figures of Mounted Infantry left to finish all the mounted elements.

I have also just topped-up the Mounted Mahdists lead pile as they head toward their final total of 100 camel...... now has anyone seen the Mahdi...

Beautiful work Mr. D!  It's wonderful to see 'The Chainy 10th' (their nickname due to their unique chainmail epaulets) getting some love. The brigade shot is terrific - you can't argue with the majesty of that mob.

As we can all see Dave has begun the saturation bombing in earnest now as I see we still have two more entries of his on the horizon. 240 points with another added for the starting pistol. Magnifique ! :)

From JasperO - WWII Bren Team (28 points)

I'm definitely not one who could be described as a 'disciplined painter', which is undoubtedly confirmed by the fact that two months into the Painting Challenge, this is my very first contribution. I tend to constantly flick from one painting project to the next, jumping back and forth and perhaps finishing some of them, some time. Because of that, I had lots of semi-started projects by December 20th, all further along than a base coat. Oddly enough, this challenge has caused me to work on some of those, and even get them finished. Satisfying indeed, but not valid for the challenge. In short, excellent planning all around... And me a publishing professional, go figure...

In the meantime, I have several projects on the boiler for the Challenge. These five, in complete contrast to everything above, I started last weekend and finished today. They're the start of an English platoon for Chain of Command and a mix of Crusader and Artizan Designs figures. Really enjoyed painting them!

First, let me welcome you aboard the Challenge Jasper - it's wonderful to have you with us. 

I think many of us (myself definitely included) can more than sympathize with the feeling of inertia from flitting around from project to project, slowly chipping away at the whole, but feeling like you're getting little done. Nonetheless, you've done a fabulous job with these 'week long' models.

I particularly like your shading (do you use a dip method?) and really appreciate the addition of the unit and rank patches (freehand?). It does such a nice job in finishing the models. I too like working on the Artizan range, as they generally have such distinct folds and planes to their sculpts, which really aids in their painting. They also have a lovely, reassuring heft to them, which really means nothing but appeals to my weird, deep-seated 'heavy is good' sensibilities.

You've really done them justice here, Jasper. I'm going to add a few more points for the shoulder markings and rank chevrons to tip you up to 28 points. Wonderful work! Keep up the steam, as I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing to see more of your work.

From BenitoM - Fallschirmjager Supports (107 Points)

Despite some hurdles (real life!) my FJs project continue progressing and finally I can post some of the support units that I've been working in over the past two weekends.

In any case, here are the latest contributions:

Mortar and HMG support stands

These models belog to the Warlord range. The HMG is positioned .in the edge of a forest ready to ambush any Allied unit falling within its sights.

Next we have a combat engineer assault  team with LMG pair, an additional ammo carrier and a junior leader commanding the team.

These minis are from Artizan. This brand's models area bulkier than the average Warlord model, but I just tested on a table and do not stand out significantly when viewed at a distance. I'm using Artizan models to add variety of poses to myFJ unit.

(3) A junior leader and prone LMG team for my FJ section dressed in winter gear, both from Artizan.

And here you can see the complete section, mixing Warlord and Artizan models... can you notice who's who? I think they match nicely.

Infantry with MP 40s, again from Artizan. The more I paint models from this manufacturer, the more I like them.

And last but least, the second armour support (the previous was a Hetzer): a Stug III in a colour scheme than can be used fora any scenario from late 43 onwards. This was done with the help of airbrush fence-master Alfredo, from my gaming group.

Lovely work Benito!

I feel that Warlord has suffered from lack of quality control and consistency within their ranges, but I think these figures mix very nicely with the excellent Artizan models. I like the tree stumps with the MG team and your winter figures continue to impress. That StuG III is a lovely lump of kit. I particularly like the single-tone camo - as you say it will be very good for the '43 campaigns, especially those in Italy.

You're now well past the halfway point to your target Benito. Well done! Now, you have the push to the finish! 

From DaveD - Sudan - Medics and Signallers (85 Points)

The collection is well enough progressed that it needs time spending on items of table dressing , and also pieces that can be used to drive scenarios. Often I hear that the Sudan games will be very one sided with the imperial just blazing away until the Mahdists run away or are dead. Well if that happens to my mind it is down to poor scenario design. To even the playing field the Imperial players will a have range of things to think about from , time constraints, ammunition, water, casualties to get to safety, communications to set up or protect - protection of civilians , and medals and honours to be won (that will keep commanders from co-operating too much!) 

So here we have some of those items - some bits were started pre challenge and have been finished so wont score.

First up

New additions to the field hospital - the tents were kindly supplied by Millsy as one of our side bets last year - all done now , cheers mate.

The two civilians -one in MCC Eggs and Bacon colours ready to defend himself with cricket bat against the Fuzzy Wuzzies - are pre challenge starters and are by Wargames Foundry

 

5 figures and two casualties. scoring all Perry Miniatures

The whole field hospital is now complete

Next I have a couple of sections of signallers with Heliograph kits

 11 figures altogether - again Perry Miniatures

These chaps with a  small protection unit , should provide a tempting target for the Mahdists and a challenge for the Imperials to protect....

Now how did Corporal Millsy sneak his way in to these...

I love these little vignettes as they elevate what is a good tabletop experience to a great one. Those tents are wonderful and I've always had a soft spot for those Perry signalers and heliograph engineers. Such character! AND we have a cheeky cameo by that intrepid soul, Corporal Millsy with his Savage Spade of Doom.