From SimonG: Roman Statues and Auxiliary Archers (85 points)

With another Monday I'm very excited to offer today two contrasting offerings from my ongoing Jewish Wars project -- a pair of statues for table decoration plus the first full Impetus based unit -- a group of Eastern Auxiliary archers.

Avete Victoria !

I intend for these two statues to be used as set dressing within and around the Roman temple in my Antonia fortress model (as seen in last year's AHPC). The figures are 3D prints purchased from Goose Minis on Etsy. I had them printed in 30mm thinking they would be larger than my 28mm figures but as they are quite slight/not heroic builds I should have gotten them in at least a size or two up! They have been installed on plinths from Sarissa. 

Ideally I would have ordered the statues printed bigger!

Now while most of us are familiar with ancient statues in their present day "naked" form they were most likely originally brightly painted. It was quite a challenge to try and switch painting styles to make it look like a statue and not like a real human being -- choosing brighter colours, less realistic skin tones and so on.

The first statue is of Victoria who will take pride of place inside the temple.

Sarissa plinth and marble effect paint

Shown in the temple with candle light

The second statue was intended to be a general purpose scholar. However I failed to notice the huge anachronism -- what would a first century Roman be doing with a bound book!  A quick spot of research however quickly allowed me to propose that this is a statue of Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis). Now known for his epigrams, Martial was one of the first to popularise codices, an early form of bound book. So for a library themed challenge this seemed the ideal famous person!

Very pleased with this plinth marble effect!

I added a couple of braziers from my odds & sods bag

As a special nod to the character and to the challenge, the book in Martial's hand is actually open to a quote from Epigram 6.60 (translation by David Macey, strictly it is a paraphrase, so apologies if I've messed up the translation in doing this) 

Laudat, amat, cantat nostros mea Roma libellos,

meque sinus omnes, me manus omnis habet.

Ecce rubet quidam, pallet, stupet, oscitat, odit.

Hoc volo: nunc nobis carmina nostra placent.

Rome lauds, loves, and sings my little books.

I am in every pocket, every hand.

Behold: she blushes, pales, dazes, yawns, looks

sick. That’s what I want! Now I’m my own fan. 

 

(For the technically minded this is a 3point font size laser print onto sticky label paper (the book is 4mm by 6mm in size) -- the use of sticky paper is the secret as trying to place and glue something this size is a) next to impossible and b) always leads to the glue spoiling the paper!)

So with these two oddball characters out of the way we can turn to some real wargaming stuff -- a unit of skirmisher archers for Impetus -- Eastern Roman auxiliary archers from Victrix. The colour scheme is from Osprey "Roman Army Units in the Eastern Provinces I -- plate A).  I had great fun painting these in what has to be the closest I've had to a fantasy colour scheme, they would fit right in a LoTR army!

As is my habit I strung the bows with button thread. It's this sort of thing that limits my productivity 😝 !

So while the theme this week was first century Roman where have we been in the AHPC library? Last week we were in Overdues and Returns so we will call on Sarah's Library Cart in the form of Victoria to take us to The Statue of a Famous Person, Martial. Together this is two 30mm figures at 5 points each plus the 20 point bonus for the library cart and another 20 for the Famous Person statue. With finally 1 point for 1/20 of a terrain cube in the bases this gives me 51 points for the two statues.

I make no bonus point claim for the 6 28mm archers so that's another 30 points for 81 in total this week -- hard work for the points but I really enjoyed it!  With a house move next week I may have to miss the regular Monday free for all but I'm looking forward to bringing a load of 15mm ruffians in a couple of weeks time.

Sylvain: Great description of what were ancient statues and your paint job on these is perfect, they really look like painted statues. I'll give a few more points (4) for your bases, for the realistic marble effect which look so cool. And great band of archers too. Good luck with moving to a new place, I wish you unbroken miniatures.

From BobV: A Peninsular Brigade and some bonus 18th C. Command [Children's Books] (280 Points)

 This week I have completed the second of four planned Napoleonic brigades. I had a little extra time with this batch and decided to  paint some of my remaining 18th Century command figures. This portion of the project includes 112 infantry and 8 mounted officers, all in 18mm. 

After perusing the foyer of the Analogueville Public Library, I decided that this brigade has a definite connection to the Children's Book section, at least it does in my world.  We'll see if you agree. Many, many years ago, in the summer between 5th and 6th grades, I volunteered to work at a tiny branch library in a little valley town on the edge of the Southern California Desert. For a kid who loved books it was the perfect job. I was taught to reshelve returned books and eventually even given the heady responsibility of working behind the desk to check out books. All of that was fabulous experience but it wasn't even the best part. The best part turned out to be the daily responsibility of shelf reading, going through each shelf to ensure all of the books were in their proper place. 

Not only did I end up learning the Dewey Decimal system in spades, I got to see every single book in the branch library. I soon discovered my favorite sections and some of my favorite authors, including C.S. Forester, George Fielding Eliot and Martin Caidin. While most kids discover Forester via Horatio Hornblower, I happened to find an old copy of Rifleman Dodd. That afternoon, I forgot about the shelf reading and quickly found myself beside Rifleman Dodd, crawling across Portugal behind enemy lines. Thereafter, I was hooked on the author, the genre and the history. Rifleman Dodd is still my favorite "children's book" as it started me on a long and pleasant road of reading history and led to a hobby I greatly enjoy. To this day I remain enamored with almost any book that can be found in my beloved 940's and 359 sections.     

On to the Brigade...

This brigade consists of two Portuguese battalions in winter colors and two British battalions in Peninsular uniforms. All figures are 18mm AB from Eureka Miniatures USA. The flags are from Fighting15's. The Brits are flying the colors of the 33rd West Riding and the 35th Sussex. I have tried to get the correct facings for each but that sort of detail is not all that important to me. I like using historical OOB's whenever possible but all of my battalions (or brigades as the case may be) may stand in for others in any given engagement, so hyper-accuracy is not really a requirement.  

This portion of the project was kind of a bear to paint, I found the Bavarians much easier. It is likely because the British battalions are larger at 32 figures so progress is not quite as visible but they have some extra detail as well. I use a variety of base and shading colors with some contrast paint for shading. You have to be careful with contrast paint as it tends to flow everywhere, especially on top of any layers that are not fully flat. I do like the depth of color it provides. I rarely drybrush anything at this scale.

The extras this week are 8 mounted officers from Eureka's 18mm SYW range. I believe they are labeled as Prussian or Austrian but at this scale and in this era, they are pretty interchangeable.

This week's scoring is as follows:

112 x 15mm foot @ 2 points = 224 points

8 x 15mm mounted @ 4 points = 32 points

Children's Book Section Bonus = 20 points

Total = 276 points

In two weeks it's back to the Empire with a brigade of French Ligne. Happy Monday all!

Sylvain: The story about how this post fits with "children's books" is well argued. You really had a dream job as a kid. Your colors (the blue and the red) are vibrant and almost burst through the screen. I will throw in some extra points (4) for the flags to bring your total to 280 points. Great production and great read!

From PeterB - The first battle of Newbury - Local History (50 Points)

 

The first battle of Newbury took place on the 20th of September 1643. During the English civil war, the Parliamentarian army of the Earl of Essex met King Charles the 1st's Royalist army in the fields of this market town, a town historical known for its quality woollen cloth production. Henry the Eighth visited on occasion and in modern days royalty have still been known to visit. Until her death Queen Elizabeth the second was a regular visitor to Newbury racecourse to watch the horses. This same venue is the site of the annual wargame show "Colours", the largest wargame show outside of London in the south of England.

Details of the battle aren't exactly accurate. The English Civil War doesn't really lend itself to the kind of research your average wargamer wants to do. There was some efforts at the time to wear uniforms to identify yourself to your fellow soldiers so they don't hit you with friendly fire. Individual regiments would just pick a random colour for themselves though and records of what that colour was are far and few between. Some regiments didn't bother at all and men just turned up in whatever they had on.

Back in 1643 at the battle, King Charles stood on top of a hill and surveyed the battle. 381 years later on that exact same spot (okay maybe not that exact same spot, he may not have been there but the battle was) I now sit and paint toy soldiers for a hobby. I have for a while now thought maybe I should know a bit more about this history and maybe even include it in my hobby.

So I have painted up a Lifeguard regiment in 6mm from Warlord games. The pikemen are in red and the musketeers are in whatever they turned up in.

The points:

60 x 6mm infantry at 0.5 points = 30 points

Location bonus = 20 points

Total = 50 points

Sylvain: It seems that Challengers living in England just have to look in their backyard to find an ancient battlefield 😁 worth mentioning for local history. You really did a great job painting these tiny figures. As you said, their colors might not be accurate but they are colorful and I like them. Excellent brush work!

 

 

From PeterB - When Science meets romance and some WW2 Aussies - Romance - 145 Points

 

The lights flickered in the laboratory as the thunderstorm crashed outside. Lightning filled the room with brilliant white as Dr Frankenstein (it's pronounced Fronk-en-steen!) slammed the giant lever down connecting the array of equipment frankensteined together (yep its that kind of post) connecting the lightning rod on the roof to the slab in the centre of the room. On the slab a figure lay, covered in a sheet. Raw electricity pulsed through the corpse and for a brief moment the skeleton was visible as creature glowed with energy. (You know, like when Jerry tricks Tom into shoving his paws into an electric socket.) There was a pause in the storm and the lab was silent. Then, very slowly the creature began to stir. 

"She's Alive!" shouted Frankenstein with giddy abandon. "I've done it again, now I shall have my bride!"

My first entry is a new modern take on a classic. From the horror range, Bad Squiddo games have this great pair of models, gender swapping the classic literary scientist.

Also in this post I can show the results of my experiments of sepia over browns. Last week I was looking for some specific shades. This is because an old wargaming friend had challenged myself and a couple others to a tale of four gamers challenge. (Yes, I am simultaneously taking part in two challenges) Each month we have to paint a set value of models in 20mm scale to then eventually partake in a day's gaming of Rapid Fire WW2 rules. My chosen nation is Australia.

I hope I have done them justice. The models are from Britannia miniatures and my first months budget has enabled me to paint up HQ, an infantry company and a machine gun company. The machine gun company needs a couple of trucks as well, but these will have come out of next months budget.

HQ

Machine gun company

Infantry company

The Points:

2 x 28mm @ 5 points = 10 points

Location bonus = 20 points

25 x 20mm figures @ 4 points = 100 points

1 x 20mm vehicle @ 15 points = 15 points

Total = 145 points

 Sylvain: A very interesting take on the classic tale of Frankeinstein (BTW, was Albert a cousin of Frank?). And these Aussies look like they are just ready to jump into action. Bravo for the truck, this under appreciated companion of all men at war! Superb production this week.