From Millsy: Last of the Late Romans - pic heavy (300 points)

G'day All,

Here we are, last stop of the Late Roman line for the year. At times I wasn't sure I'd make it to completion, but things have worked out and I have to say I am overall pretty satisfied with the army as a whole.

Last to be shared are some commanders, the bulk of my cavalry and a manuballista. 27 x cavalry, 4 x infantry and 1 x artillery piece for a total of 300 points. And the money shots...

General and Heroes

These are mix of Gripping Beast spare plastics and some metals (from I cannot remember where). I'm not that fussed with the metals as sculpts to be honest, the horses are more like ponies and they lack the crispness of plastics, but they do paint up well enough and don't look like everything else so all good in the end.

Equites

Two bases of Equites (medium cavalry). All Gripping Beast plastics and Little Big Men shield decals. Probably the most enjoyable of the cavalry to paint and they look the business. I may have to add a couple more stands down the track for larger battles but not without more legionaries first.

Equites Sagittarii and Equites Illyricani

Two bases each of  Equites Sagittarii (light cavalry with javelins) and Equites Illyricani (light horse archers). All Gripping Beast plastics once again. Despite being the same number of miniatures as the medium cavalry they took almost half as long again to paint. I loaded them up with bits and the lack of mail to hide the tunic patterns made for more work too. You might be able to see I ignored the sculpted tunic pattern (which was right pain to paint) and matched them to my infantry instead. I think it works, at least from gaming distance.

Ballistarii

One little Ballistarii (manuballista) which in truth I will likely never field but I bought it so it got painted. I added a couple of spare infantry to fill out the base and get rid of them basically. The manuballista is from Warlord Games and the odds and sods more Gripping Beast.

The Army

And here's everything in one set of pics. They're getting a run out in a week or so and I am keen to see how they perform. AlanD is a tough opponent and they'll likely get a hiding but it'll be great fun whatever the result.

Wrapping up...

Thanks Curt and Sarah for hosting the mayhem once again, my fellow minions for sharing the load and the laughs and my wonderful collection of Antipodean lunatics charges. At times I wish you were less prolific but then I remember we don't do anything by halves down here and paining little men is no different.

Lastly, my donation for the year went to the family of a vet who died suddenly from an undiagnosed condition. Never met the guy, nor his family but that's not the point. Along with a pile of other donations his son will have his college tuition funded so hopefully he'll make a positive difference in the world.

All the best everyone. Til next year, stay safe and may you always roll sixes!

Cheers,
Millsy

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Wow Millsy, my eyes are still lingering on those last few photos of the completed force. That is just amazing!! It all looks so good, man. Well done. These new additions are superb, especially those equites. I hope you and Alan have a terrific time when you roll these guys out.

That donation sounds very worthwhile and immediate. Well chosen, mate. 

Finally, thank you for all your help minioning the Friday crew and with the theme rounds. It was really appreciated. Have a good one!

- Curt

From RichardM - Napoleonic French cavalry in 6mm (245.5 points)

This week started with an intention to get six French Dragoon regiments done to end the challenge.  Good progress on these saw me pull out two additional regiments - early French Carabiniers and then when Curt extended by a day I decided to push and add an additional two French Chasseur regiments.  Again these are all 6mm Adler Miniatures 

So I'll start with the six French Dragoon regiments.

A random three dragoon regiments from the side

There were a random 11 foot dragoon figures so I did these while I had the colours out.

I already have the later French Carabiniers but wanted to add the early ones given how different their uniform was - so two early French Carabinier regiments.

And lastly two French Chasseur regiments.

Points

10 regiments of French cavalry so 240 figures @ 1 point each = 240 points

11 French Foot Dragoons foot figures  @ 0.5 points each = 5.5 points

Total = 245.5 points

From Millsy:

Six dragoon regiments in one go is something else. One of the joys of this scale is the ability to do proper cavalry divisions and what a sight they make! And then you added a few more regiments for good measure! Lovely work mate, and probably my favourite of your Naps apart from the Confederation of the Rhine.

What a way to close out your Challenge. This takes you past 2000 points so well done indeed.

Cheers,

Millsy

From PeteB - Paulus Miniatures - The little lady and the cat - 10 Points

This is my last contribution for this years challenge. And as I wanted to paint at least one other female figure, after my Bonnie I decided to paint this nice little girl from Paulus Miniatures with her cat "Gaston"! The girl is a 3D printed figure and 54 mm high. On this little vignette will be added some more figures but not this challenge. I don't get them ready. But I hope you like this little lady that is dreaming and watching her cat.

The piece of scenery (7 x 4,5 cm) comes with the lady. The cat is part of a medieval soldier running around his legs. I choose the name of the cat "Gaston" because our first cat was a white one. He's been always in our minds and harts, and now he is visual in this little figure. The base (10 x 6 cm) is a print from miniatuurwereld.com.
I used a lot of grey and some earth colours for the base and the wall, and the window shutters in blue to get some more color on the vignette.

The not painted figures;

Base and scenery.

Thanks for watching!

Points: 1 x 54 mm Foot figure = 10 Points.

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I really like this vignette, Pete! How very whimsical and introspective. I like that you drew upon your family and your past pet for inspiration on this. I also appreciate how you did the stonework by introducing browns and tans and the shutters in blue to give the piece more warmth and colour. Really lovely work and I'm going to give a few bonus points for the terrain. I hope next year you can show us the completed piece. Well done!

- Curt

From MattW - last Post WW1, WW2, modern (45 points)

 Ww1, ww2 and modern 

Last post for the challenge, I have quite a few bits that did not make the last charge as I run out of enthusiasm after my airbrush decided to have a hissy fit so I had the afternoon off …. A big thanks to Curt, Sarah (for putting up with this craziness), all of the minions, and fellow challengers. 

So I finish with some 20th century wars armour. 

First up the venerable Ww1 1/76 male MkV from Airfix plastic, weathered and splattered with mud. This kit is a gift to a mate in Australia for his birthday later this year. 

Next up a 1/72 sdkfz 251/1 from plastic soldier company for my ww2 collection maker up for my 9th SS project. 

Finally a Swedish 1/72 resin kit armoured car from Gecko for my Cold War Swedes.

3 x 20mm vehicles @15 points 

 Total 45 points 

Squirrel 
Ww1
Ww2
Cold War 
Total 3 squirrel points 

Cheers
MattW  

From Millsy:

Cracking brushwork Matt. I particularly like the the camo on the 251/1 which has a really convincing depth to it. Even so my favourite would have to be the Gecko with is just wonderfully weird. It looks like someone liked the look of a T-34 and thought "I can do better. A LOT better".

45 more points closes out your Challenge nicely. Thanks for sharing your work with us this year.

Cheers,
Millsy

From MarkE: Romans and a Lady for Sarah's choice (45 points)

Squeaking  in under the deadline and before running out the door for another fun filled night at work, I present my last couple of submissions for the challenge.

A base of 25mm Old Glory Romans and a 28mm Dark Sword Miniature.

These Romans continue a project I started way back in the '90's  Here they are beside a base I completed somewhere before the century turned: New work on the left, old stuff to the right.

I had actually forgotten about this project until I started scouting out my lead mountain for the challenge.  If I recall correctly I was basing them for dual use for the old Chipco Fantasy rules and Classical Hack.  So a real blast from the past.  I've got at least 1.5 more bags of these to clean up, prime and paint so it will be Romans for a while on the bench.  It will help be get more of my brush skills back before moving onto some Perry Napoleonic that have been hanging around getting dusty for at least 10 years.

Last but certainly not least for this year's challenge is my submission to Lady Sarah.  She's a 28mm Dark Sword mini from their Elmore line that I purchased for the first time I entered the Challenge back in 2012.  Life intervened at that point and I failed to get one entry in.  I had to complete at least one mini from that failed effort.

I've always loved the artwork from that classic era of TSR.  I grew up with posters from Elmore, Easley, and the rest of that studio on my walls, and their evocative art fueled many a weekend D&D session with my high school friends. She was going to be my submission for the Toys theme round but I didn't manage to get her done by that deadline.

I'll be making my Curtgeld contribution to Doctors' without Borders.  I've worked with several physicians who donated their time to that organization over the years and they truly do great work.

Points:

8 x 25mm Romans @ 5 pts  = 40 points

1 x 28mm Lady      @ 5 pts =    5 points

                                            total = 45 points

It brings me to 229 for the challenge so a bit short of my 300 goal.  

Well it's off to work.  Unfortunately my night shifts don't afford me time to chip away on my hobby like (I think it was) Ray's epic nightshift challenge year.

Cheers,

MarkE

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A fabulous final entry Mark! Those venerable Old Glory Romans look the business (and the mentions of Chipco rules takes me back!). That being said, the female dancer takes the cake here. Wow, what a lovely job you did on her. Well done Mark. Also, thank you for the donation to Doctors' Without Borders - a very worthy organization doing important work.

- Curt