'Mercenary' from GregB: Renaissance Mercenary Commander

28mm Renaissance Mercenary Commander from Wargames Foundry. He looks a bit confused. Probably because he is all by himself in my kitchen, and not surrounded by his troops.

For some time now I have been captivated by the efforts of Curt, PeterD, KenR and others (apologies to those who I missed) in the "Italian Wars" setting.  Every so often, I get all charged up and think "hey, I'm going to try that period too!" until I read a bit about it and get confused in, like, five minutes.  I don't think I could come up with something that will make sense, and the uniforms of the era easily intimidate my brush, and so I wander off to find something else to paint from my current 10+ "ongoing projects". 

We should all get to wear pants this yellow! And with some armour. Why not?

Still, these bonus themes offer the chance to try and stretch your range a bit, right? Curt said to me once "It is a painting challenge, after all" and that always rings in my head. I believe the Italian Wars were replete with mercenaries, so I thought I would paint a mounted mercenary officer, and this theme round seemed like the ideal moment to dip my toe into the war.  This is a 28mm figure from Wargames Foundry's Pike & Shotte range.

I believe a more proper setting for this fellow would be to surround him with 50 pike-bearing figures...but for now, he'll do.

The figure is supposed to be carrying a spear...but that never arrived from Foundry (sigh).  All the same, he looks like he might be gesturing casually toward something, so I think it still works overall.

"Where are my troops?"

For colours...well...the mercenaries of that era seemed to dress flamboyantly, if nothing else. I just made sh*t up for some colours - yellow pants, red hat, light green-blue...is that a coat? Cape? I'm pretty sure it's a cape. Whatever.   But I love the overall outfit.  There is some nice armour under there too - you can just see it on the riders' thighs.

So, just one figure.  Won't count for much, but will look nice on the shelf. And besides, it is fun to experiment! Maybe someday I'll try painting a Landsknecht or two...I mean, anything is possible, right?  Those pike blocks sure look astounding once they are painted up...

Thanks for looking!

'Sport' from GregB: Sport in Middle Earth: Orcs

Here come the bad guys...

 For this theme round, I thought I would stretch the definition a touch and use it as an excuse to paint some more of the goodies I found in my "Lord of The Rings" pile.  After all, what do heroes in Middle Earth do for sport? Why, hunt orcs, of course.  Erkenbrand and the rest of the gang do need some sport to stay in shape, do they not? So here is the "Sport" in Middle Earth - Orcs.

Two archers, and two orcs sporting double-handed weapons.

In any game of GW's "Lord of The Rings" tabletop rules, you will likely need orcs.  The number varies, but it is generally somewhere between "quite a few" to "as many as you can possibly manage".  While there were some excellent metal castings "back in the day", the bulk of these figures came as plastics.

Another view of the archers...

Orc "spearmen" - I particularly like the sculpt with the goofy plague-ish helmet...

Sculpted by the Perry brothers, these LOTR orcs are quite nice, and paint up reasonably fast.  While you do lose some detail on account of the plastic, overall they are strong sculpts - matching not only the look of the orcs in the Peter Jackson films, but in general a "look" to orcs that I quite prefer (i.e. not traditional goofy GW). 

Orcs with hand weapons, shields and grotty clothing...

Pretty basic paint jobs, but they'll do fine!

Each sprue offered a mix of weapons - a few with swords, a few with spears, a pair with two-handed weapons, and a pair with bows.  There are a total of 12 28mm plastic models here - the output of a single plastic sprue of bad guys from GW's "Return of The King" box game. Just need to do two more of these sprues, and there should be enough orcs for a decent LOTR game...

'Reconnaissance' from GregB: Rohan Outriders

"Outriders" of Rohan - 28mm figures from GW. 

I love "The Lord of the Rings" (as, I suspect, do most, if not all, of my fellow Challengers) and the GW miniature game released around the times of the Peter Jackson films (back in 2001!) was both a superb accompaniment to the films and an excellent table top game on its own.  The line of figures, sculpted by the Perrys, was beautifully done, sweeping in scope and astonishingly comprehensive.  Many of my fellow gamers were avid collectors of the figures and we enjoyed many an LOTR game at the Fawcett Avenue gaming tables. 

Mounted Outrider, face buried beneath the cheek and nose guards of his helmet. 

The other fellows in the group had the whole thing covered well, so my collecting/painting of those figures was limited. I love the Kingdom of Rohan, and so I painted up a small force of riders and a few characters - probably circa 2002-03...well, fast-forward, like, 16 years, and while I was rummaging around my hobby treasure hoard last month, I came across two old GW blister packs of these figures - "Rohan Outriders".  I thought they would make fine entries for the "Reconnaissance" theme round. Here they are! 

That one plastic horse leg at the bottom of the photo is holding the whole thing together...yikes...

The "Outriders" seem to be intended as sort of scouts for the forces of the Kingdom of Rohan.  I couldn't tell you what the rules for them are, as I cannot find them, but in appearance they seem a little more rugged than the average warrior of Rohan, if not a as heavily equipped as the King's Royal Guardsmen.  They strike me as Rohan's answer to the "ranger" class seen in the other Kingdoms. 

I like the fellow with the bow, great animation in the pose. 

Drawing a bead on an Orc no doubt...

While I wanted the green cloak to stand out, otherwise they are painted in mostly muted browns and greens.  The armour was very tricky, as the Rohan armour seems to feature metal plates at base, with leather and other weaving somehow mounted/attached on top - it looks lovely, but having the bright metal at the base, rather than the highlight point, of the armour is a touch irritating and tough to pull of well (at least for me). 

Dismounted "Outriders" - again mostly focused on their bows, excellent sculpts. 

For whatever reason, I like my Warriors of Rohan to have a brighter green cloak...

Each blister pack contained one mounted and one dismounted figure. The sculpting is incredible, as always - and a bonus treat is that these figures are proper metal castings.  The proportions are so much more slim than the usual GW fare too...I had forgotten this about the LOTR miniature range.  The only downside is that the horses are plastic - and in each case, attached to the base by a single hoof.  These will be fine on the shelf, but equation of "plastic horse + single attachment point + metal rider" is ripe for problems on the gaming table, I fear...

Finding and painting old treasures in the hobby pile is always one of my favourite aspects of the Painting Challenge.  These are the first "Lord of The Rings" figures I have painted in more than 15 years!  It was a lot of fun to discover these - and I turned up some other hoarded bits as well (some old plastics Byron sold me, a few other goodies).  Hopefully they will find some time under my brushes this year as well. 

'Music/Musician' from GregB: Sound The Charge For God

28mm Crusading Knight from Perry Miniatures' First Crusade range - part of a command pack

In the last edition of the AHPC I tackled a project in a gaming era for which I had long held an interest but never quite had the courage to finally paint any figures for - the First Crusade. It was a modest start, but I finished a four-point warband for the game SAGA.  Another great example of the sort of jolt one can get from participating in the Painting Challenge!

The animation of the horse is great, and really adds to the sense that he is giving everything he has into sounding the "charge!"

Anyway, while accumulating all of those Knights, I of course picked up a command set, and the set had a musician.  When I saw this theme topic was part of the AHPC this year, I figure he would do just fine, and would be a nice addition to the other Crusaders I had already painted. So here is a Knight, sounding the "Charge!" in the Holy Land, for the Glory of God!

This is a 28mm sculpt from the Perry Twins' incredible First Crusade range. As is so often the case, the miniature was a beautiful casting and total fun to paint.  The shield markings are courtesy of the LBMS shield transfer range.  Although you can clearly see I had a bit of an issue fitting the decal properly, overall it's not too bad and he'll do fine.

Not a perfect execution on the shield decal, but it will do...

So, a break from all of that Cold War-era armour! I managed to sneak in the painting amid many rounds of olive green on all those Canadian tanks last week, so he could be ready to post while I was on the road. Always good to give the horse-painting side of my hobby brain a bit of a workout. Let's see where it leads next in what comes for the painting table...

I'm sure he will feel better once he has some Knights around him to follow his "charge!"

Thanks for looking!

'BFG' from GregB: Big F***ing Cat Killer

SU-100 tank destroyer in 1/100 scale - from Peter Pig

I had nothing really top of mind for this theme round, even with such a cool subject.  I was disappointed, and thinking of passing on it, but I constantly recall Curt saying to me "Greg, it is a painting challenge, after all," so while watching the Winnipeg Jets somehow eke a shoot-out win out of the Calgary Flames this afternoon, I found this in the big pile-of-stuff in my basement and painted it up - an SU-100 tank destroyer.  The model is 1/100 scale, from Peter Pig.  I felt a 100mm AT gun in 1945 counts as a "big f***ing gun".

The scourge of the German heavy tanks which often pop up on late-war-setting wargame tabletops, this SU-100 will put a sizeable hole (or three) into the scary fascist Panthers, Tigers and other armoured issues which might pop up. That makes it a "big f***ing cat killer".   My large collection of 15mm WW2 Soviets has many T-34 tanks (of course) but very few heavy tank destroyers, so this model will give German players something to think carefully about!

Still needs a tank commander...

This model is from Peter Pig, which means it is cast in metal. I LOVE models cast in metal - this is how proper wargames figures SHOULD be done.  The detail is excellent, the casting is flawless and it was a treat to assemble and paint.

Tried to rust the exhaust just a touch...

Touch of fall foliage...perfect for stomping German forces in a drive through Poland...

Not much to say about the paint job, other than it covered the basics, and it is nice to finish a model that has been hanging around the pile for almost three years! It does still need a tank commander figure - note the empty cupola - but that is something to worry about another time...

'Flight' from GregB: Preventing Flight

This group is more anti-flight...quad 20mm AA gun in 15mm from Battlefront

The contemplation of these bonus rounds often leads my mind toward unproductive flights of fancy - I think of figures or models I could order to really try and "hit one out of the park".  But the reality of shipping times is such that such delusions seldom work out - and in fact, the point of the Challenge is to tackle your existing lead pile.  And so that is what I did for this bonus round - for "Flight", I thought to focus on, you know, the prevention of "flight".

Useful against air AND ground troops...big factor in 1944/45...

Of course flying is wondrous and marvelous.  But on our gaming tables, flying stuff is generally a pain in the @ss that is probably coming to wreck your sh!t.  That is annoying. Hence, the fun in deploying anti-aircraft guns like this one, a German quad-20mm rig from World War 2.  This in 15mm and the castings are from Battlefront.

Multi-part model made of metal...just like wargames figures SHOULD be...

I don't mind "Flames of War", but I also tend to play games like "Battlegroup" and "Chain of Command" in 15mm as well. An my preferred period within WW2 is later Eastern Front.  In this time, the Germans cannot count on the Luftwaffe, and hard-pressed AA units found themselves not only trying to keep the Red Air Force at bay, but were also pressed into duty as frontline combat units.

I may try and finish the other two guns from the battery during the Challenge...we;ll see...

For dual-role purposes, this quad-20mm will come in handy, punching out Sturmoviks while mowing down motor rifle troops in the doomed defence of various pockets and positions. It has been sitting in the "pending" pile/hoard for painting purposes for over a year, so nice to get it finished, and contribute the spirit of the Challenge - a small dent in my lead pile. 

'Characters/Scene from' GregB: Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!

Horse soldier! Horse soldier!

For this last theme submission I encountered that rare-but-great Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge feeling - the connection of a theme with an ongoing project! This final theme round offered the chance to paint characters from a song, and one song popped into my head right away. After a quick search to make sure the lyrics checked out, I present two characters from the song "Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!" by Corb Lund.  Go listen to it right now, enjoy the wonderful, inspiring ode to cavalry through history, then come back and finishing reading this post!

Curt introduced me to this song some years back, and I find it inspiring for my painting efforts.  Like many Challengers, I find painting horses can be a bit daunting. But listening to this marvelous song I feel like I could knock off a 28mm cavalry regiment in no time!  And because Curt was the one who introduced me to it, it always makes me think of visiting him and Sarah in Regina, which is always a good time! So I thought it was doubly appropriate inspiration for this Challenge.

So, to each character, and the relevant lyrics from the song as captions:

And I knew Saladin...

...and rode his swift Arabians...

...harassing doomed Crusaders on their heavy draughts...

...and yet I rode the percheron...

...against the circling Saracen...

...and once again against myself was cast...

So as you can see this theme lined up very nicely for my SAGA project, as these are both warlords to lead warbands in the game.  The figures are 28mm metals from the Perry twins' incredible First Crusade range. The Crusader figure will complete my first SAGA warband (a small, four-point Crusader band). The Saracen commander is the first figure to be painted for the Saracen faction.

And since the Warband for the Crusaders is now complete, I thought a team photo would be nice:

My 4-point SAGA Crusader warband, finished during this Challenge! Yay!

Horse soldiers - timeless through and through! Seriously, go listen to that song, then paint some cavalry! 

'West' from GregB: West German Marder IFV in 15mm

Marder IFV in 1/100 scale from Battlefront's "Team Yankee" range

I had high hope for this bonus round, but it was not to be this week.  Work, life etc.  So for the "West" theme round I binned my pretension to instead offer a single 15mm vehicle, a Marder infantry fighting vehicle from the West German Army in 15mm, finished very late last night.  This is a model from Battlefront's super fun "Team Yankee" game of Cold-War-gone-hot rules.

Hipsters and pedants constantly point out how "Team Yankee" is more appropriate for 6mm size figures, given the scale and range of the weapons involved in this (thankfully imaginary) conflict. And they are absolutely correct. But it doesn't change the fact that our crew in Winnipeg has had a hell of a lot of fun playing "Team Yankee" over the past few months.  The models coming out of Battlefront have been, for the most part, excellent, an incredibly complete range of figures.  And this from a guy who absolutely despises plastic models...

Count on the West Germans to have a sexy-looking IFV for their troops...man that 20mm cannon looks vicious...

The Marder is no exception, an excellent plastic kit.  You can model it with the Milan AT missile mounted on the turret, but I passed on that, preferring to have the missile teams dismount with the infantry to battle on the table.

Panzr grenadier section ready to hold back the red hordes...

In theory there would be three of these vehicles for each Panzer Grenadier platoon...but this one will have to do for now for the theme submission, while the balance of the company awaits for logistical issues to sort themselves out (meaning they will be finished post-Challenge, if at all).  Thanks everyone! And special note to Nick - you need to get started on Bundeswehr stuff - can't wait to see your brush skillz on these things! 

'Home' from GregB: A Humble Home in Hochland

A home for Hochland!

I didn't think I would be able to make it for this theme round.  I generally loathe painting terrain of any sort, and work in particular has become extremely busy, so it has been harder to get brush time in.  On the plus side, we also leave tomorrow for our little annual trip to visit Palm Desert in California, which is awesome, but does slow down the painting.  I couldn't even find anything that might count as "home" - clever or otherwise.  As Iannick warned me, "a Titan is not a home Greg, no matter how many people it holds..." I figured I would miss this theme round.

Out of the blue, enter Byron! We were getting together for our weekly game on Thursday this week and he handed me this little gem, created with a 3-D printer or something. "I've noticed all the Warmaster stuff you have been painting," he said. "So I thought you might like this medieval home as terrain." Wow!

Nice little staircase for the back entrance

So, here is something I want to call "A Humble Home In Hochland".  It fits perfectly with my Warmaster forces, and will indeed make for a fine piece of terrain on the table when the time comes for the gaming.  The texture of the material (a resin, I think?) was a little tricky to paint in a few places, but overall it took an hour or so to paint up.

"When is the possession date?"

I don't know the details of 3-D printing/additive manufacturing or whatever the f*ck it is called.  It involves IT stuff.  I have never once contemplated this hobby and said to myself "You know, I wish I could work some computer problems into this experience," so this is not something I'm about to look into.  I can't tell you how it works. But as you have seen in this Challenge, when these really clever and creative folks get hold of technology, cool stuff can happen.  Byron is one of the cleverest hobby engineers I know.  I have no idea exactly how this was created, but Byron can tell you, I'm sure.

A wizard tries out the yard...

However the magic happens, all I know is that I think it is great!  Thanks so much Byron!  Can't wait to have this on the table for a Warmaster game later this year! 

'East' from GregB: Mounted Samurai Warrior

For my submission to the "East" theme category, I decided to look into my pile of regretted purchased (which, regrettably, is kind of large).  Prime among that sorry segment of the hoard are a few packages of Samurai stuff from the Perry's mind-blowing 28mm range of Samurai metals.  I thought a Samurai, fabled warrior of Japan, would make a fitting submission for the "East" theme.

These figures have been sitting around my basement for years. At the time I ordered them, I had thoughts of maybe doing Lord-of-the-Rings-rules-style skirmishes.   Samurai are amazing, and those games would be a lot of fun.  Unique as well, as nobody in our group does this period or setting.

But I did not find Samurai easy to paint, and they were even harder to research, so I have ignored the figures and they sit unpainted and unassembled in my pile of shame.  I painted one figure years ago in a prior Challenge (veterans of the Challenge may recall the year of the '47 Ronin' for the Curtgeld) and I never wanted to paint another one.  But part of the fun of the AHPC is to try and push your boundaries a bit, so I thought I would try again.  This theme submission was the perfect chance to experiment a bit.

This Samurai was not much easier to paint...the sculpting is amazing, I love the Perry's work, but the bottom line is that I was just not too sure what I was doing...so I squinted a lot at some photos on line, and gave it my best shot. At one point I wanted to just throw the damn thing into the nearby Red River, but I'm glad now that he is finished that I ignored my inner-juvenile frustrations.  He looks pretty scary on the horse, ready cut someone down to size.  Damn, it would be fun to game this stuff.

This was an interesting diversion - but who knows, maybe I can at least finish the other two Samurai from the package as part of this Challenge? We'll see..