From GregB: 10mm Bavarians and Prussians for Franco-Prussian War

10mm Bavarians and Prussians for the Franco-Prussian War. Figures from Pendraken.

In this entry I return to a project that was the subject of one of my final entries to AHPC X - some more 10mm castings for the Franco-Prussian War.  Here we have an assortment of Bavarians - infantry, officers and artillery, and some Prussian Dragoons.  These 10mm figures are all from Pendraken, purveyor of the finest 10mm figures I have ever come across!

Bavarian infantry regiment - I went with yellow facings on these fellows.

Pendraken sculpts are fun to paint.

View from the rear of the line...

When I love a period or a setting, I am apt to start painting it in multiple scales. Yes, I know this is bonkers...but what can I say? I love the 28mm figures because you can enjoy the many fine details on the lovely uniforms of the period.  But there are limits to 28mm when it comes to playing out the battles of the period - they were large, corps-level battles and I'll never have enough 28mm figures, table space or time to run something like Spicheren, Froschwiller or Gravelotte-St. Privat in large scales. To play even portions of those engagements, I'll need smaller figures.

Bavarian artillery - Krupp 4-pounders, steel breech-loading pieces that greatly outgunned the French artillery.

Another view of the gunners.

Different rules can give you different options in terms of table representation. For the "1871" rules, this would be equal one regiment of Bavarian infantry (with each stand representing a battalion), four batteries of Bavarian Krupp 4-pound guns, a Bavarian brigade commander (single mounted officer on a base), a Bavarian division commander (two mounted offers on single base) and a Prussian dragoon regiment (each base representing about two squadrons of cavalry).

Prussian dragoons.

Even in 10mm, the Hussars are the glamour-boys of the cavalry arm, with their lovely finery and silk-bagged head gear.

I struggle with artillery in any scale, it's always a big stumbling block for me, so it's particularly great to get this group of batteries out of the way.  These four batteries will provide a divisions' worth of guns to my initial Bavarian contingent.

Bavarian command bases.

The single officer will lead a brigade, while the stand with two figures will serve as a division commander.

I started messing around with Pendraken's 10mm range a couple of years ago, and I was blown away by the quality and completeness of their offering.  I've been puttering away at a 10mm collection ever since! I have one specific battle in mind to start - the Battle of Wissembourg.  Using the level of representation described above, I have calculated I will need 88 different bases all in, including all of the infantry, cavalry, artillery and officers.  This is for one of the smallest battles of the war (at least for the "Imperial Phase") - and still that's a fair amount of kit to get painted.

I just need to paint these figures, and I can run my first 10mm battle...hoping to get through these during the Quarantine Challenge.

Those kinds of goals can seem so far away. And yet...progress has been made over time! In fact, I'm almost sort-of within striking distance - when Curt told us he was going to do the "Quarantine Challenge" I thought completing the necessary 10mm figures would be a worthy goal. So I am going to try to do just that...as you can see, I'll be my own worst enemy as I will suddenly feel like painting Titans or panzers or FPW stuff in another scale or who-knows-what else at any given moment...but hopefully I'll be able to stage the Battle of Wissembourg in 10mm by June.

Thanks for looking and visiting - hope you are having a good, safe and healthy day, wherever you are!

KenR - 28mm Italian Renaissance Town

Well here it is, my Renaissance Town, it was going to be a village but you know how it goes 😂

Like many out there I have had to cancel plans and my holiday in May is off, being an honorary Yarkshire Man the brass was still in my account so it needed "investing" elsewhere and these buildings came into the crosshairs at the right time.

I am dreadfully lazy when it comes to terrain, I can spend hours sorting out detail on figures and flags but when it comes down to buildings and the like I just can't get the enthusiasm.

The buildings are from a Company called Empires at War, I have never heard of them until a few weeks ago. I saw a nice building on eBay, took a punt, it was lovely and I ordered a "few" more.

The buildings are avaliable in plain mdf or for a couple of quid more, painted. The lazy terrain builder in me got painted obviously. I have done nothing to these models apart from build them, and I think they look rather nice.

In fact I sat down with my son over a couple of afternoons to build these, it was really nice to spend some quality family time together, even if the reason for it is a worldwide pandemic.

I would be grateful if one of the Minions or even the Snowlord himself could give me a guide on what points these 11 28mm buildings would bring in the challenge as I have no idea, just for my personal total so it doesn't have to be too accurate.

I will do a much bigger post on Yarkshire Gamer in the next couple of days with a video and lots more pics so drop by if you can.

Now on table are a unit of Italian Wars Gendarme which got prepared for AHPC X but never got started.

From PeterD Anglo Dutch Wars Squadron c1666

I am a bit late off the starting gun with my first post but here goes.  I've got some Tumbling Dice 1/2400 scale ships from their Anglo Dutch Wars range.  This project was meant to be one of my big focuses for the regular challenge but I had issues gluing sails to masts and then got distracted by other projects that weren't as fiddly to assemble.  I think I finally figured out how to assemble these little ships reasonably and hopefully will have more to come in the Quarantine Challenge.

Assembly issues aside (all of which lie between the seat pad and the cutting mat) these are lovely little ships with a nice amount of detail and paint up nicely with a gentle hand.  You can get away with more basic modelling skills vis a vis larger scales and don't need to rigging if you don't want to.  I've been inspired by Barry Hilton's work over at his blog (oh sod that I flat out blame Barry for getting me interested in this period).  Go get lost there to see ships with very nice paint work and rigging.

First up a set of English ships.  Two of these appeared in my later flurry on the last day of the regular challenge, but they've been touched up a bit and given names and flags.

• On the far right leading the line is the second rate Royal Oak, named for Charles II's place of refuge after the battle of Worcester.   She was completed in 1665, heavily engaged as a flagship during the three major battles of the Second Dutch War and then burnt by the Dutch at the Medway fiasco in 1667.
• Next in line is the third rate Monck one of the last tips built under the Commonwealth.  She was named for Cromwell's General at Sea George Monck who basically handed Charles II his throne and become Duke of Albemarle as a result.  Albemarle tag teamed command of the fleet through most of the Second Dutch war with Prince Rupert.  Monck the ship served through the Second and Third Dutch Wars, the Nine Years war and part of the War of Spanish Succession before being rebuilt in 1707.
• Next is the fourth rate Ruby built in 1651 under the Commonwealth to a design that was resumed many times in the English navy.  She served 50 years and fought in 16 major fleet actions.
• Behind Ruby is the fifth rate Colchestor built in 1654 and lost in 1667 fighting the French in Martinique.
• There are also two ketches Nonsuch and Lizard.  Nonsuch is a famous ship in Canada as in 1668 she was sold to Prince Rupert for the expedition that created the Hudson's Bay Company.  Lizard was used a fireship in the action known as Holmes' Bonfire.

Stern view.  I tried to show the detailed galleries but it's a bad photo and angle.

Sailing off to adventure and battle.

I played a little loose with flags on these ships trying to balance historical accuracy, game play and my limited  fine motor skills.  These larger ships were all in the Red Squadron so where red ensigns at the stern, if somewhat oversized.  (My dad could tell you the arcane rules of using of red/blue/white ensigns in modern times but in 1666 it was much easier!)  I've added a Union Jack (again oversize) at the main, apparently this was first used in Charles II reign.  Royal Oak gets an additional red ensign to denote her flag role at her foremast.  The labels include the ship's name, a Union Jack to show nationality and red ensign to show that they are part of the red squadron.

From Sander and ArthurS: Meet Starshine... (5 points)

So once upon a time there were two heroic adventurers ranging all the dungeons in the Old World. From Kellars Keep up to the Frozen North they trekked, you know how it goes: there and back again.

Many an hour did Arthur and myself spend playing Heroquest (and Necromunda...and Space Crusade...and Space Hulk... this may take a while), but never were/ are we joined by misses S.  Arthur's mum dislikes anything utilising violence and that includes pretty much all games an 8 year old plays. So when Arthur imploringly asked mum, puppy-eyed and all, what it would take for her to join us in a game of Heroquest, she needed to think fast in order to avoid doing so. After a little pause for thought she imagined she had found the ultimate unreachable goal indeed: "If you guys manage to paint me a pink and purple unicorn, I will play a game along with you." Mum was counting on my aversion against anything unicornish (pun-intended) and the lad's aversion of pink to be spared the fate of delving the board with us for treasure.

She could not have been more wrong...

I will let the pictures speak for themselves shall I?

These are Impact miniatures My Little Pony look-a-likes, only they have an evil glare to the eye. (I have just created a tag/ label for "My Little Pony")  They come in packs of 4 with two sporting horns and two without, and an ample spread of wings and sundry stuff to glue on.The one to the right has been painted by Arthur and that's the one Mum uses for her games. Is there a Sarah's Choice in this Challenge? And if so do these apply?

To use them with a game you need some stuff:

A characterbooklet to keep track of things, a big character card describing the figure and it's abilities, 3 magic cards (in Dutch) that describe the spells the pony can use (with names like: "Glitter-in-your-eyes!", "Jar-of-cookies" and "Magic-lightning!") Oh and pink HQ dice...

I think my brain is dying on me truly... Apart from Starshine (the figure Arthur painted) these were all done just before this Quarantine Challenge started, as Tamsin well knows ;-) but I wanted to show you anyway.

What I did paint this week is a test figure for a new project. While I am still adding to my first wargames love (the Dark Angels, 40K), I thought it time for a different coloured space marine army and after watching the hilarious rant by Arch (love him or loath him) I just had to do something with the Celestial Lions or Star Kitties. So now you know why I have combined these two figures in one post.

The Celestial Lion shoulder pauldron has been done on the 3D printer and boy do I love that!
I really like this scheme and reinforcements for the Kitties are ordered and incoming.
For now I want to get some more 3D printed stuff done and am still painting Star Wars Legion miniatures. See you next time!

From Iannick : Emperor's Children Phoenix Guards

Although I am one of those "essential" workers, and work a lot I do, and as such the mandatory isolation hasn't allowed me the same free time as others, the lack of any social life on the week-ends sure helps my painting output.

And so I join this quarantine challenge with a logical follow-up to my Analogue Hobbies output, with more Epic goodness!

Here is another infantry detachment for my Emperor Children legion, and a pretty cool one at that; the Phoenix Guards. 

The Guards served as ceremonial honour guards to Fulgrim, the Primarch of the legion. On the field of battle, the Phoenix Guard provided an impenetrable ring of courage and steel, barring the approach of any enemy who dared challenge their Primarch.

In Epic Armageddon, these can be fielded as a stand alone detachment, but they are also mandatory if one chooses to field Fulgrim himself, the Primarch of the IIIrd Legion. You may remember I painted Fulgrim during the challenge, so obviously painting the Phoenix Guards was the logical next step.

The figures are lovely, full of details, and they tower over my other Epic infantry, even my terminators, standing approximately 9mm tall. It makes them look extra special on the gaming table. I spent a bit more time on them than I usually do on Epic infantry, as I wanted them to look the part. Very happy with the result. The gold really compliments the purple. 

I assume my next entry will be more Epic, although I've also just started working on a new 6mm project...so stay tuned!

Best of luck to everyone! Here in Quebec we just learned today we are in for another month of isolation! More quarantine excitement, yeah!

KenR A Blake's 7 Reprise

For those of you with really good memories I did a big group of figures from Blake's 7 a few years back on the regular Winter Paint Challenge. I have had these six hanging around waiting to be finished since then. As the lad is home from Uni we are busy researching the series and that has led to an interest in the game again (we had a family 7tv scenario today).

These six figures are characters that joined later on in the 4 season run or are additional models giving an updated late run version of original characters. Above left to right are Dayna, Soolin and Tarrant.

The three above are the late versions, Blake himself on the left, Avon in the middle and Villa on the right,

Villa was a great character, a confirmed coward, desperate to look after himself and stay out of danger but a fantastic thief and expert lock picker, his interplay with Avon was often hilarious.

Avon, added new levels of sarcasm to a TV Series.

Soolin, a late series character, played by the lovely Glynnis Barber, most boys who were teenagers at the time will remember her !

So 8 x 28mm figs at 5 points a piece is 30 giving my personal total at 151. Tomorrow will see the reveal on the Italian Wars town.

From Millsy: Italian Condotierri

Having missed the AHPC X I was really keen to jump on board here and make some serious headway on the lead and plastic mountain. Thanks Curt for making this possible mate! Thanks also to everyone who checked in on me over the summer as I worked on the bushfires with my RFS mates.

Its something of an embarrassment for me that despite the fact I did all the layout and design for Simon Miller's wonderful To the Strongest! rules I have only ever played a couple of games and don't own a single complete army I can use to play. This seems like an excellent opportunity to rectify that so here we go with three units for my Italian Condottieri, eerily similar to Simon's own army of the same type...

Firstly, Venetian militia spearmen from the Perry Miniatures Eurpoean Mercenaries box set mixed with parts from the War of the Roses sets. The large round shields (aka rotella) are thumb tacks with the spike removed. They came out well but were a bugger to get the paint to adhere to.

Next up a pair of skirmishing infantry units, handgunners from Florence and Venice once again. Also from the Perry Miniatures Eurpoean Mercenaries box set mixed with parts from the War of the Roses sets.

I've recently taken delivery of yet another(!) big pile of plastic from the brothers Perry so stay tuned for a bunch of mounted knights to flesh out the heavy cavalry for the army.

Stay safe people and keep the wonderful work coming.

Cheers,
Millsy