From MartijnN: Medieval Bowmen

 As you now, I am really one for the smaller scales. As a matter of fact, before Challenge XI began I had not painted a figure larger than 15mm since the eighties, apart from some few Warhammer 40K figures bought on impulse in 2018. Mind you, I do have a sizeable (unpainted, of course) stack of  GW fantasy figures and some medievals for a fantasy project that has been on the backburner since time immemorial, but I had not yet come around to painting any of them. However, more inspired by following the Challenge during the last few years than anything else (I guess I, too, can blame Curt), I bought some medieval figures. I prepped them for the "main" Challenge, but you know how it goes. Now seemed as good a time as any to get them done, so here are no less than eight medieval bowmen:

 

They are plastic Fireforge figures. Now I am not a great fan of building figures, nor am I very adept at it, so please excuse the somewhat irregular poses. I am sure that it is more due to my poor modelling skills than to the quality of the figures themselves that some of them look like they have been overindulging in Mister "Cut me own throat" Dibbler's fine sausages again. Still, as a group I am not too dissatisfied with them. Of course I had to drop one of them on the floor, causing the bow to break. I'll have to find an alternative way to repair it, as I have lost the missing piece, but I wanted the post to go up today so that will have to wait.

Needless to say I used Contrast paints again, as well as some colours from the Scale75 Instant Colors range. I find the Scale75 paints a little fainter, or less opaque, than the Citadel paints, but they generally work ok. Obviously, I had to finish the figures with a coat of your friend and mine, as Youtube miniature painter Sonic Sledgehammer calls it (check him out, he is great): Agrax Earthshade.

So, as if I needed another project, eight 28mm figures for 40 points. Yeah!

KenR : 28mm Kingdom of Jerusalem Mounted Sergeants

The recruitment for the Kingdom of Jerusalem continues a pace with a new unit, this time it's Mounted Sergeants.

12 x 28mm figures from Fireforge Games, I've decided to arm these with hand weapons rather than lance which means there are less flags than normal. The large pennant had been painted using a decal from the Battle Flag Decal set as the base.

I do like the sense of motion you can get with these Fireforge figures, the plastic kits allows you to make subtle variations in the figures, the horse poses give the impression of motion and the deeper bases I like to use allow a staggering of the figures again giving that feeling of movement.

Looking at the Quarantine Challenge points total it's another 121 points taking me to 1308.

I have a unit of mounted Knights left to do before the force is finished but for the moment I am concentrating on finishing off my 7tv Baddies.

KenR 28mm Kingdom of Jerusalem Foot Knights

The last of the Foot are done now for my Kingdom of Jerusalem force, this little lot are Foot Knights and are once again from Fireforge Games, this time their Templar Infantry plastic set.

Colours are the same as I have used for my other units in this force, aided greatly by decals from Battle Flag. Basing is 6 figs on a 60 x 50 base and it was a bit of a challenge getting the figs on the bases with the large cloaks that some of the figures in the front rank are wearing.

I've used some of the decals on the rear of the cloaks as well.

I've got a couple of mounted units which will have the same theme and I will start on those soon.

I think the poses in this set are a lot better than the Sergeants set and I quite like the variety I have managed to get in arm positions which gives the unit a more realistic feel. I quite like the faces on the figures, they have really grown on me and my style of painting cam make them quite expressive.

I've got some Irregular Miniatures WW1 Cavalry as a test on the paint table at the moment so will be reporting on those next.

Another 121 points taking me to 965, pushing for the thousand !

KenR - 28mm Kingdom of Jerusalem Foot Sgts

Welcome all, hope we are all well 4 weeks into the lockdown here in Yarkshire, I for one am seriously missing some Fish and Chips with mushy peas and a breadcake !

This week I've finished a second unit of Foot Sergeants for my Kingdom of Jerusalem force, this time they are armed with a mixture of melee weapons, they took a bit longer to sort out than the previous unit due mostly to the shields.

I've used some shield transfers from Battle Flag, I bought two sets one battle damaged and one plain. The plain pack worked really well but I found the damaged ones disintegrating very quickly and had to throw a few of them away. I've not had this problem before, I've contacted Battle Flag but not had a reply yet.

I rather like this unit and they fit well with my Crossbow unit from earlier in the month, I've got a dismounted Knight, mounted Knight and Mounted Sgt unit and will most likely use the same livery to get a nice little force within an army.

So for the imagination, these are worth 121 points to add to the 563 from before moving me up to 684. Up next the start of my Cops and Robbers collection.

KenR 28mm Crusades Crossbow

After the tank fest of the main Challenge I was always going to go off at a tangent once it was over. There are still the German 28mm vehicles to do and my 15mm Kursk project to attack but for now it was off the heavy metal and onto the Medieval plastic.

Those familiar with the output from Yarkshire Gamer will be aware of the Crusades Project it's had a couple of false starts but I keep chipping away at the edges of it now and again. I've got plenty of stuff prepped which if I remember correctly I did for Challenge VIII a couple of years ago.

So here we have a unit of 24 Crossbow, the figures coming from the Fireforge Foot Sergeants box, the flag from Flags of War and the shield decals from Battle Flag. We have played a few games with the Deus Vult rules and we are slowly getting used to them, with the inevitable Yarkshire Gamer house rules.

Although it's not a points based challenge I thought I would keep my own personal score so 24 figures at 5 pts each is 120 plus 1 for the flag, 121 towards my personal challenge.

Coming up in the next few weeks will be more Crusades, a large Italian Wars village (ok it's a town), some 7TV figures and if your lucky more Tanks and Italian Wars stuff. Stay safe out there.