From BenitoV: Guards Units for a Saga Warband (40 points)

Failed my Tuesday rendez-vous at the Painting Challenge last week due to a spike in my workload, but I'm back on the fray again. This week I bring 8 heavily armoured Dark Age warriors equivalent to two  Guards units of 4-men of a standard Saga Warband order of battle.

 

As you may see the models today are multi-army (or multi warband), generic enough to fill the ranks of any warband that extends between the Late Roman Empire years to  the end of the first millenium. Therefore they'll suit anything termed "Anglo" and/or "Saxon", even Vikings, Danish, Bretons... you choose.

 

 

With these units, I have already completed a typical 4-5 points infantry-based Saga warband made of Levies (usually archers), Warriors (lightly armored), now the Guards, led by the Warband Lord, but all on foot.

 

 

As with the rest of the painted Warband, the models are from the Gripping Beast's plastic range in 28mm, in this case the Saxon Thegns box featuring 44 multipose models with endless combinations of weapons (axes, swords, javelins) and heads. For the shields I used  Little Big Men Studios transfers.

 

With this submission I add 40 points ( 8 x 28mm models @5 points each) to my Challenge scoring. Next in line I'd like to explore some of the Blue Pass Studios, but this will mean distracting for a time of the Saga projects. 

If I have the time, I'll combine these extra submissions with some Dark Age cavalry units, needed to build many of the warbands on the Invasions period (Goths, Franks, Visigoths, etc).

It's definitely a good idea to do the basic troops as generic as possible so that they can be used for multiple warbands. These guards look great, Benito!

Tamsin

From MartinC: Jungle is Massive (175Pts)

 I've been laid up with the lurgy for over a week and not done much painting but the conversion of my entire house into a storage space for 28mm Vietnam terrain continues at a pace. I thought I'd add to my jungle collection. So I popped down to Poundland and bought one of thsoe really horrible plastic topiary balls and cut it up to make more.

Decided to make some large sections, each approx 10x6 inches with a mix of plastic palm trees, privet and other stuff

Think they have come out well

Overall they are 28"x23" x 2" high = 6.5 terrain cubes

Having finished the 10mm Poles last week I was about to start the Ottomans when I found a few more Polish infantry, not enough for a regiment but a couple of small skirmisher units

Then I started the 10mm Ottomans. As with all new units, irresepective of the scale, you aren't really sure how to paint them until you have painted them. These have come out OK but not as gloriously colourful as I would have liked. Odd considering they are painted magenta!

On the upside I have loads more to practice on.

Finally all good films deserve a sequel and it's back to books for another good film adaptation.

Obviously this is Bob Cratchett and Tiny Tim, cracking figs by Northstar

Scores on the doors

Jungle = 6.5 cubes = 130pts

35 x 10mm infantry = 35

Bob Cratchett and Tiny Tim = 10pts

Total = 175pts

That's a lot of jungle, Martin - it would look even better if you hit the plastic plants with a wash to tone them down a bit and maybe hit the edges of the larger leaves and palm fronds with a drybrush. The Ottomans look great - love their pink coats!

Tamsin

From DaveD: East Germans & French - Cold War Gone Hot - 7DTTR (293 Points)

 Right back to normality from doing silly butterfly things. Having completed the French armoured force its time for some WARPAC opposition. So sticking with our smaller nations theme here is the East German Force -a classic motor rifle company and a T55 unit (no points for the T55 though as they were already painted - just needed basing)

All 15mm

BTR60s

 

5 vehicles , 1 command 

A mix of infantry , LMG and RPG stands 

77 infantry .

For force completeness here is  the armoured element of  the force 12 x T55’s - non point scoring as I have only got around to the basing while I was doing the other stuff. I pick these up ready painted from a guy in Poland last year and they are very nice.

To round out the previous completed French armoured group I have now finished a French infantry platoon and extra  Milan teams . There is another to complete at some point .

 

49 infantry.

So grand total:-

5 vehicles = 40 points 

Vehicle crew 1 = 1pt 

Infantry 126 = 252

Total = 293

So the  points take me over target with just over a month to go  Huzzah! .

 And 293 to the Never Ending Cold War side dual  - feel my fire! 

That’s it for this project for now until we get a game in to work out what we need next I think .Well they may be a few tanks in the production line - we will see . 

Now it’s time to return to Nam!  There is some good stuff in the wings and I want to break the back of this project by the end of challenge .

Excellent work, Dave! Good to see the French and DDR get some attention! 

Tamsin

Tamsin's Tuesday Tangents

 

"Good morning Ladies, Gentlemen...and Ray! I must confess that when I saw that the studios had only seen 56 releases last week I thought we might be slipping back into the February doldrums, but it appears we had a number of box office smashes as they grossed a total of $8,514 million which is $1,907 million more than the previous week. Our total gross so far is $48,723 million and our Chief Financial Officer is predicting* we will hit $91,000 million gross by the end of the 3-month apprenticeship scheme."

"OK, folks, time to list today's releases:

DaveD presents a 1980s version of the Franco-Prussian war

MartinC brings us The Rumbles in the Jungle

BenitoV has a saga about Guardsmen

SanderS presents the second instalment of his fly-on-the-wall documentary about daily life in AHPC Studios GmbH

SimonG weaves a tale of The Valkyrie and the Twenty Zealots

KerryT brings us a Middle Earth film about Dwarves and Oliphaunts

MattW hopes to have completed his tale of Napoleonic era Prussia

Hmmmm! Not as many as some weeks, but I suspect a few blockbusters are lurking in there."

Toodle-pip!

Tamsin

* remember that prediction ($91,000 million) in case he tries to claim he predicted some other amount when the final take is calculated!

From PaulSS: A trio of Gaslands Carnage -- 50pts

 

The mojo was low this week, with todays deadline looming all I had added was a shipping container and made a start on the base-coat of a '32 Ford for the Gaslands collection.

Waking up yesterday morning with a head cold did little to boost my enthusiasm, but powered by hot lemon drinks I finished the Ford and then painted a Volkswagen, before, in true Gaslands style "Pushing It" and getting the Bel-Air finished before bedtime.

'32 Ford

A few weeks ago I had been visiting my daughter and her boyfriend who is also into Gaslands and he showed me some 3D prints he had picked up from Etsy. After an order of my own I was soon sticking bits on of my own.

The '32 Ford, has new wheels and hubcap spikes added as well as a door mounted machine-gun, rooftop lighting array and exhaust baffles added, the windscreen cover is made from car body repair mesh.

I painted this in mainly army surplus, US Dark Green, but with a door panels and trunk in white, what does "15137" mean? Who knows!

Baja Bug

The Hot Wheels VW "Baja Bug" really comes out of the packaging ready to play, but I still added new wheels, extended exhaust with spiked baffles and some bolt-on armour to the front.

In this instance the colour is Clear Orange, but with many panels scraped back to rusty steel.

I left the glass in the windows of the Bug, so after finishing the paintwork did those, and the headlamps and roof mounted lighting array in a non-glassy glass technique.

Bel-Air

The final car is a Bel-Air, this one was quite the build, I cut the roof off with my Dremmel and added armoured plates from Wills corrugated iron sheeting, strapped in place with some jewellery chain. The 3D printed parts added a ram at the front, new wheels, air intake, machine-gun and rack of supplies on the back. The windscreen was replaced with car body repair mesh.

I had a go at painting this one with contrast paints and the main colour of the car is Leviadon Blue, although by the time I had done dirtying it up you would hardly tell. 

As I made this a cabriolet, I will need to add a driver at some future point.

The last item is a rusty shipping container I made a start on a few weeks ago when I had over-done it with the US Dark Green when painting the US armour.

We have a 60-can game on Thursday so will use these three to make up my team for the evening.

Three 20mm vehicles and a 5 point claim for the container will add 50 points to my total.

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

A fine trio of Gaslands wrecks Paul.  I love all the extra details that you put on these vehicles and the battered and chipped paintwork.  The conversion work on the Bel Air is particularly fine.  Good luck dealing with the head cold and hopefully you are fully back up to speed next week.  Oh and give 'em hell on the track this week.

KenR : 28mm Italian Wars Borgia Light Horse (130 pts)

 

Back on track (ish) with my Italian Wars, much like the shot unit which was to fill a hole in a storage box, this unit has been done for the same reason, I have space for 12 Cavalry in my Light Cavalry box.

The unit consists of 12 28mm Perry figures from the Light Cavalry plastic box set and a flag from Petes Flags. At 10 pts a piece that will be another 120 points to get me back on track for 1500 for the Challenge.

The colour scheme is based around this picture, I don't know its origins, I picked it up from my friend Robbie Roddis. I'll do some Heavy Cavalry in the style in due course but I wanted to do a unit to represent the lighter armed squires and the like that would be with the Knight in the lance system. 

Most of my Italian Army are from the house of Borgia so this is a very useful addition to my army, it quite literally fills a hole !

I've got a palette cleanser unit of 10mm on the go at the moment, which I will probably drop in with other 10mm units at some time. Next up for the Italian Wars will be my first Spanish Colunela, its 60 figs so it might be a couple of three weeks work, especially if I keep the, ship a week, going.

Always love to see your Italian Wars stuff Ken and these light horse are no exception.  Love the horses the car taken with the tack and the livery.  That Perry Light Cavalry box is one of their best and you've done an excellent job on these lads.  I am bumping your points up a bit  for the liveries and flags.

From Matt T - Growing the Horde, [ 85 points ]

This post sees me continuing to progress with my Khwarazmian Army for Basic Impetus. The army list calls for 4 bases of bow armed medium cavalry. 2 bases are slightly better quality and I have chosen to represent these on barded horses. Not sure if it is entirely accurate but it does make them easily distinguished on the table top. 

The minis are from the excellent Aventine Miniatures Sassanids range. They are from the right part of the world, even if they are a bit earlier I am not sure how much the would have changed. Anyway I think they scrub up pretty well, shields are hand painted but the banner is from LBMS. 

8 x 28mm Mounted Cavalry @ 10 points each = 80 points total.

Wow those are great looking heavy cavalry Matt.  Really like the work on the horse barding and the shields.  

I appear to be giving out extra points like candy today, but you've getting some too.  I need to get the generosity out of my system before I grade Calculus midterms on Wednesday.

Iain W 28mm Grenadiers a cheval of the Imperial Guard (120 points)

 Twelve more cavalry men of the Imperial Guard.  This time it's the Grenadiers a cheval, the premier heavy cavalry unit, the gods! I got these from Colonel Bill's an online second hand figure shop that is also present at shows, I've bought some lovely gendarmes from them before at Salute,but this was the first time I bought some online. They're venerable Connoisseur figures, proper old school, sold originally as 30mm mounted on Colonel Bill's own brand horses which are nice and chunky, I only got them because I'd seen our own Matts Napoleonic French cavalry over on his blue willow blog and quite fancied them and they've been fun, I had to add an eagle bearer and trumpeter, although they did come with an officer,but you've got to have a flag though right? Once more it comes from GMB and is lovely. 

More Napoleonic French cavalry, I'm trundling along in this challenge as I managed to damage my knee and ankle painting and decorating the hallway and unfortunately the only time for physio is time that I would otherwise be painting so I am somewhat behind but I'll just have to see how it goes, I  have got dark age figures primed but I seem to be addicted to Napoleonics at the moment!

12 x 10 points for 28mm cavalry gives me 120 points to my total 

All the best Iain 

Ouch painting at 1:1 scale sound painful Iain, I suggest that you give that a rest and focus on the small scale stuff.  Loving these Heavies especially as they are the proper old school figures.

But get on to those Dark Age figures will you!