AHPC XV: From Mike W - 15mm Warlord Epic Carthaginians, 28mm Arthurian Cavalry and AWI American Militia

 A bit a a scrambled post this week as time has just flown by and getting this batch of little guys ready has been a challenge!

Lybian Heavy Infantry unit, 3 bases each of 20 figures.

Closer view of the Lybians

First up are two units of 15mm Warlord Games Epic Carthaginians,  ech unit of 60 figures. I have completed a unit of Lybian Heavy Infantry and a unit of Scutari.

And the other end of their line

The Lybians are Armoured in chainmail, with helmets, spears and shield. I painted them much the same way as the Romans in my recent post, however  I have given them a range of colours for their shields ( with free hand symbols on some of these) and given them either purple or blue tunics.

Rear view of the Lybians

The Scutari are spear and sword armed, with helmets and shields, their painting is simplified as they all wear cloaks. Again, I gave these guys a range of shield colours, but tried to keep the red, white and black theme going that I had with the Lydia's, albeit that these guys had some blue instead of purple shields and the Lybians had a number of brass shields.

Close up of the Scuari, with a variety of shield designs, all painted free hand

Another shot of the Scutari

And from the rear, note that a number of these guys have what appear to be covers to their helmets, much like teh 19th Century Havlocks, to protect the wearers nect from excessive sun.

Hopefully another two units for next week....

Next I present the overdue Arthurian Cavalry, 6 x Mounted guys, originally due last week, each wears mail and is armed with spear and shield on an Armoured horse. Again I have looked for a unit cohesion by using white & red shields to re-enforce  their identity.

Six Arthurian Heavy Cavaly with armoured horses.

Another shot of these fearsome guys

And a shot to get a better view of the shield designs - all white and red to give unit cohesion

Close up of two of the little guys

Another two horsemen

And the final two mounted guys

Finally, thanks to fellow club member Nigel, for gifting me a frame of Warlord Games 28mm American AWI plastic figures.

Completed group of five militiamen

I have taken five guys from this frame and painted up as Buckskin clad militia, armed with rifles. As with all of these ex Wargames Foundry kits, I find their assembly a bit fiddly but the resulting figures are OK.

Another angle

These figures were undercoated in a cream colour and then painted in a variety of browns to represent their buckskin dress. Skin was done in my usual manner and details of bags, guns, straps etc was added.

Look out for 5 x Continental Infantymen in the near future.

Next Week? Hopefully more 15mm Carthaginians, a small group of 28mm Landsknechts that I didn't finish this week and more Arthurian Infantry....

Read original post <here>

AHPC XV: From Mike W - 28mm High Elves & British Sudan Infantry (130 Points)

 So this week has not been as productive as I'd hoped, with real life commitments getting in the way.

However I did finish 2 batches of figures and I have quite few 'in progress' on the workbench - more 28mm Arthurian Cavalry, some ECW types as well as some AWI figures and a bunch of Warlord Epic 15mm Carthaginians...

21 x Highland Miniatures, Aegean (High) Elves

Another view of the unit

And another....

But this week's main event are 21 x 28mm High Elves, which are 3D Prints from Highland Miniatures. They were a joy to paint and as such I have tried to align their colour palette withe the classic Games Worksop figures I completed earlier in this Challenge.

The command team, I love their long flowing hair, caught in the wind.

Group of four elves, in a variety of clothes
but all with the same colours to bond them together in a unit

I was originally going to leave their waist sashes white but these did not scan well, I then tought of doing them in turquoise blue but that would clash with the rest of their outfts so in the end I settled on yellow sashes.

Four more elves, in a variety of positions.
The figures come fully moulded with a set of inter-changeable heads to allow added variety

Another group, bases are 25mm MDF squares

Final two Elves

And a close-up on the standard bearer,
symbol was taken form an online illustration.

The other batch of figures that I completed were 5 x British 'Post Office Riflemen' from the 1885 Sudan Campaign. 

Five Riflemen in Sudan

These 28mm figures are old Wargames Factory guys, they are a bit crude, sculpt wise,  compared to more modern plastics but I fancied doing them due to an obscure family connection to this little known unit. 

Two riflemen in close-up

Two little guys shooting - I'll refrain from saying that
'the postman always shoots twice!'
Oops! I didn't!

Close-up of the final figure - although rough and ready,
by today's standards,  the sculpt does the job

It turns out that my Great Grandfather was a Post Office worker in 1885 and we'd always been told he was a Rifleman. He would have been 19 years old at the time of their second Sudanese campaign in 1885.  However, I have not been able to find any records of his service - so we are now thinking that this was a bit of a rather over-embellished story!

POINTS

21 x 28mm Elves @5 Pts                  105 Points

5 x 28mm British Infantry @ 5 Pts     25 Points

TOTAL                                              130 Points

AHPC XV: From Grahame H - The Last of the 15mm Samurai and Two 15mm Spanish Tercio (358 points)

 Just a small posting this week as I bring my Samurai army to completion.

First up two units of Ronin each of 16 figures. These are 15mm from Two Dragon Products (Dixon)

64 pts 

The Baggage and Stuff. 

Three Large Pavise (6pts) , a very large drum (6pts)  and a Samurai getting on his horse (10pts). I have scored each piece of equipment as 2 pts. Hope that is ok. It was just easier. (Total 22pts)

There are four bases of baggage with a total of 30 figures (60pts)

Finally a Camp?

There are 12 figures on this base (24pts). In addition to the usual Dixon ones, I have added some Essex figures as I need a seated general, and as I don't like throwing figures away, I added his Essex body guard (which may be from an earlier period than the rest of the army)

So the Samurai is done (well for the moment - an army is never truly finished I'm told) 

Total 170 pts

Before I started on my next project I thought I'd have a play. I have always wanted to make an 80 years War Spanish Army but never really liked how Tercio were portrayed in the rules I have seen. I did start this army a few years back and some of the figures were shown on this site in previous challenges. However, I noticed that Baroque rules had a whole Tercio on one base, rather than made up of lots of smaller units, so I gave it a go with the remainder if the unpainted Spanish I had. Anyhow, two Spanish Tercios, 15mm Essex figures. Still not sure. 93 figures 186Pts

I have already started the next project so something new in my next post.

Total 356 pts

AHPC XV: From Mike W - 28mm Arthurian Cavalry, 15mm Romans and some others! (Wrath) (172 points)

 Imagine my surprise as I opened up my long awaited order of 3D printed Elves to fulfil my stated aim to work on a unit of Elven Archers this week only to find that the batch did not contain any bases! 😢

 What it does underline is the importance of reading what the eBay lot you are buying actually contains - my bad - so I am delaying that work for a week until I get some bases delivered.

Three stands of '30' 15mm Roman Soldiers, as supplied by Warlord Games

Instead it gives me an excuse to start work on a batch of the Warlord Games Epic Hail Caesar miniatures that I have collected off the front of various Wargames Magazines. I have a frame of Romans and a frame each of Carthaginians and their allies.

Close-up of Roman Troop Type #1, armoured with plumes

What is clear to me now is that I have to source a couple more Roman frames to enable me to field 3 units each of three bases, each frame contains one base of three different troop types / styles.

Close-up of Roman Troop Type #2, armoured with crests

The types / styles are bases (unscientifically or for that matter historically) based upon armour worn and crests on their helmets.

Close-up of Roman Troop Type #3, largely unarmoured with plumes

As many of you will know the Roman figures come in a special format such that you can represent a block of 30 figures on one stand, without having to paint all 30 figures! For more info see <here>.

Rear view of the completed stands.

Close-up of Roman Troop Type #3, from the rear showing that they are mostly unarmoured except for a small chest and back plate.

Close-up of Roman Troop Type #2, from the rear showing that they are armoured

Finally a close-up of Roman Troop Type #1, from the rear showing that they are also armoured

Being an honest chap, I have consulted with my designated minion and confirmed with Martijn that these are the first such figures to be painted in these challenges and we have agreed a scoring regime for such stands. 

It respects the long running 1/2 points rule for prone figures but extends it to cover the front and back ranks of the triple Roman stands - so these each only score half points as the front rank only contains the front of the figures and the rear rank only contains the rear of the figures. One point is awarded for each of the head and shoulders of the middle rank giving a base score of  10 + (20 x 3 x 1/2) = 40. 

Side view of the completed stands, showing that each has three ranks represented.

This we agree is a fairer score than the potential 90 points for 30 x 15mm figures when over half are not really painted! Hope everyone is happy with this.

Anyway on to how these were painted. The figures were left on their frames and undercoated in white. The base of relatively unarmoured figures were then given a coat of GS Skeleton Horde to give the appearance of a light brown tunic. Other Armoured figures were given a coat of GW Leadbelcher. Heads, arms and legs where painted with GW Darkoath Flesh. Once dry spear shafts were done in light yellow and shields in GW Mephiston Red.

Army Painter Hoplite Gold was used on helmets and the small square armour plates on the otherwise unarmoured figures. Plumes were painted with GW Black Templar, before all pieces were being removed from frames, touched up and then glued together, before a final wash of Army Painter Strong & Dark wash mixed 50/50 and then watered down.

After a matt varnish, the bases were painted with a cream hobby paints mixed with PVA glue and fine sand added.

Five Arthurian Heavy Horse, all Gripping Beast figures out of the box.

The mounted Arthurians are again from the Gripping Beast Heavy Cavalry set and painted in much the same way as those posted earlier in the challenge.

Unit leader, standard bearer and warrior

Two more Arthurian mounted warriors

With the figures completed earlier in the challenge this makes six such figures, I'm in two minds if the mounted units should be 6 or 12 strong. Likely I'll initially settle for 6, but part of me wants to have equal numbers in the mounted and dismounted versions of a unit, in which case I can add more in the future.

Another view of the five completed figures

This ECW Halberdier is a one off, Lowland Scot, with a very simple paint job but nonetheless effective in my opinion.

Covenanter Marker, with simple Hodden Grey uniform

And another view

This guy had been lying around my worktop for ages, having been missed at the time I was building my Covenanter Army. I'm pleased to finally get him done, now he'll be used as a marker of some description.

Now for something completely different....

A very spikey and angry looking mutant to my eye!

This Zombicide Mutant  is a big old monster for a 28mm figure, standing nearly 5cm tall, I am taking the liberty of claiming Dante's Wrath Bonus for this guy. He looks pretty bad tempered and angry to me. He will join my other Zombicide figures and I'll have to work out a scenario to get them all on the table.

Rear view of the Zombie Mutant, showing his puss filled boils ncely!

He came undercoated in white and I mostly used Speed Paints and Washes on him to get him done. The skin was basically GW Death Guard Green with sections done in Army Painter Algae / Gillie Green and then washed with AP Military Green. Pants are AP Rune Grey and the ripped shirt is white, washed in light grey an then highlighted again. 

Another view

A fun miniature to paint even though the subject is quite grim! Spikes are white, washed with GW Skeleton Horde and then dry prushed with Ivory. Boils are white, then highlighted yellow and then a red in wash is used to circle each to give a livid sore look. Blood is Red ink and GW Vampire Red.

Stop Press, my bases arrived yesterday so hopefully I'll get back to the Elves this week, but I also feel the urge to do more 15mm Carthaginians...