From NoelW: Penultimate pot pourri of painted pieces

As we’re nearing the end of the Quarantine Challenge (but not necessarily nearing the end of lockdown as, as far as I can see, little has changed for people like my family) I decided it was time to review my plan, as it was certainly “ganging agle-y”. I'd originally planned for 23 projects, each of which I wanted to touch twice (once to complete something already begun, once to do something new). By last week, I’d touched 14 of the 23 projects, addressing only 22 of the hoped-for 46 “slots” – not even half!

So, with time trickling out through the plughole of existence, I decided I’d aim to use the last couple of weeks to gesture in the direction of as many of the remaining projects as possible. This is a bit of a cheat, really, as I’d intended much more than this, but other things have eroded my time, so this is simply a way of making me feel a bit better about myself, as well as getting a few more projects chugging infinitely slowly forwards.

Here, then, is my penultimate post of smallish offerings, from several projects. 

First off, the American War of Independence. This has long been a conflict I’ve been interested in (since the days of O level history, in fact), but a project I’ve constantly failed to get back to. So, with a concerted effort, here’s a contribution for both sides.

For the Americans, a “butterfly”:

And for the Brits, the 45^th, Nottinghamshire, regiment:

Next, a Congreve Rocket for my Waterloo setup. I try to add something each year to the Waterloo collection around the time of the anniversary. This is a Warlord model. I find their offerings quite varied in quality, perhaps because they tend to buy up other smaller firms, but this model I really like, as it gives an unusual dynamism to the Napoleonic battlefield.

I’ll finish with a couple of Lord of the Rings characters. Hama, who is definitely one of the good guys, swallowed, according to Peter Jackson, by a warg en route to Helm’s Deep:

And Denethor, Steward of Gondor. Now, is he Good or Evil? He’s wearing black, so that seems definitive. Except pretty much everyone in Gondor wears black, so that’s not much help. As the faithful steward who turns out to be faithless, and the loving father who sets his son on fire, perhaps neither Good nor Bad, just slightly conflicted.

(Apologies for the overexposed photos, BTW.)

That’s 26 foot (130 pts) and 2 war machines (20 pts) = 150 pts. Cumulative total for the challenge: 1494

And the state of play of my projects, with less than a week to go, 26 of my hoped for 46. Can I complete another 20 projects in 5 days?

Project	New Task	‘Points’	Old Task	‘Points’
Agincourt
AWI	Farmstead	3	US Butterfly British 16 foot	30 80
Black Seas (1/700th)	2 merchants	20
British in Egypt: 1801			Generals de Rolls’ regiment	30 60
Cape Wars	12 infantry	60
Carthaginians
Crusades	Command group	20
ECW
French in Egypt: 1801	Guns	50	Command Gun crew	75
Frostgrave/fantasy	3 Treemen	24	Frankie	5
Italian Wars
Lord of the Rings	Swan Knights Denethor Hama	60 5 5	Harad cavalry Harad infantry	60 45
Minden (15mm)
Ottoman
Peninsular War			12 Spanish	60
Republican Romans
Sikh/Afghan Wars	Command stand 8 Irregulars	15 40	11 irregulars	55
1860s British IF	Command base	15	Union rebasing	0
1880s, the Sudan	Buildings	15	18 British	90
Walmington/Sealion	6 landing craft	30	3 Civvies 6 zombies Bandstand	15 30 2
Waterloo			Congreve rocket	20
WW2 Desert	3 trucks 39 Afrika Korps	30 195	15 Italians	65
Zulu War	NNI Frontier Horse Natal Carbineers	30 60 50	Pearson & Chelmsford 4 foot	25 20
TOTAL		727		767

From SimonG: HYW Hobilars plus some terrain (and an ambush!)

For what will no doubt be my final posting I have to offer only one stand of four Perry plastic English mounted bowmen/hobilars. I have to say that these are not the greatest sculpts, being somewhat soft in detail and lacking in facial character. I always love the horses however -- now they are some characterful beasts!

Accompanying are two more 12x12 terrain pieces using the Terra-Formers system from Sally 4th. I made one up as a small forested area and made the centre of it a pull out so a stand could be placed within the wood. Lots of fiddling to make it fit but I think it came out OK in the end. Only 20 more of these pieces to do to make a 6'x4' gaming area!

Riding by ...

... avoid the forest ...

... because there's an ambush!

Anyway it's been great fun participating in all of this and I cannot wait for AHPC XI later this year! Keep safe everyone!

From CLarenceH: Camels and a Horsie!

It's a great feeling to meet a hobby goal. This unit and the edition of a mounted Emir, completes my initial target to face off against my Highlanders.

Not a great photo, but I'll set up some proper shots on terrain when I get in my first game.

So for a quick recap, this gives me four units of Beja foot (two with spears, one with swords, and one with rifles), the camels, and a mounted Emir - 89 models in a relatively short period of time. Going forward I intend to add two units of Nile Arabs and a unit of Baggara cavalry. Beyond that? Well, we'll see. I may incorporate ahistorical things like Zanzibar slavers (I don't think they ranged up the Nile to Egypt), nefarious Belgian mercenaries (not really appropriate as allies of the Mahdi), or Central African style brigands (Rugga Rugga). I already have a large collection of these from the Wargames Foundry Darkest Africa range that will fit right in with a little rebasing. Of course, I can always add more Beja foot!

Up next - reinforcements for the Brits - a platoon of the IX Sudanese!

Afghans, DAK and British Intervention Force

This week I’ve been able to catch up a little. Still not quite as much as I’d like, but a decent number of figures compared with previous weeks.

There’s 11 more Afghans:

plus all of the Afrika Korps for my friend Jon - another 39 figures. Although there are also several “crew served weapons” I think only the MG34 should count for extra points.

The bulk of the troops:

Machine gun and radio:

and three support stands:

And finally, another command base, this time for the British Intervention Force, which is a slightly odd army created by the Perrys. The BIF were the British and Canadian forces intended to defend Canada against Union incursions in the ACW, and potentially intended to invade the US and aid the Confederates across the border, but were never called on to act. 

I like this army because, in essence, it's Victorian "fantasy". If it's ever going to get into action, then that action must be fictitious, so it could be used within ACW, Victorian Science Fiction/Steampunk or a Victorian Imagi-Nation, all of which I rather like the idea of. It makes me think of H G Wells, and is likely to form the basis of a slightly more extensive Victorian fiction of some description.

In total, then 51 foot, 1 mounted + 1 mg = 275 imaginary pts, all of which will contribute to the side challenge with Stuart, too, which now totals 775 pts.

With regard to my overall targets, it's pretty obvious I'm going to fail to meet these in the time remaining in this Challenge, but here's the state of play nevertheless. 

Project	New Task	‘Points’	Old Task	‘Points’
Agincourt
AWI	Farmstead	3
Black Seas (1/700th)	2 merchants	20
British in Egypt: 1801			Generals de Rolls’ regiment	30 60
Cape Wars	12 infantry	60
Carthaginians
Crusades	Command group	20
ECW
French in Egypt: 1801	Guns	50	Command Gun crew	75
Frostgrave/fantasy	3 Treemen	24	Frankie	5
Italian Wars
Lord of the Rings
Minden (15mm)
Ottoman
Peninsular War			12 Spanish	60
Republican Romans
Sikh/Afghan Wars	Command stand 8 Irregulars	15 40	11 irregulars	55
1860s British IF	Command base	15	Union rebasing	0
1880s, the Sudan	Buildings	15	18 British	90
Walmington/Sealion	6 landing craft	30	3 Civvies 6 zombies Bandstand	15 30 2
Waterloo
WW2 Desert	3 trucks 39 Afrika Korps	30 195	15 Italians	65
Zulu War	NNI Frontier Horse Natal Carbineers	30 60 50	Pearson & Chelmsford 4 foot	25 20
TOTAL		657		532