AHPC XVI: From Mike W: More 28mm Crossbowmen, Egyptian & Greek Undead and 15mm Epic AWI Infantry (166 Points)

 Another varied mix of figures and subjects this week, with hopefully 2 more Squirrel points! New to this year's challenge are a group of Warlord Games Epic 15mm AWI Infantry, painted up as a Militia Unit, curently I have only finished two bases of these little guys but I have a few other Epic bases if I get round to them.

40 x American AWI Militiamen

A view of the left flank of these Militiamen

I made use of speed paints to do most of the heavy lifting on these guys, just a varied mix of jacket colours really. The flag was taken form the internet as a generic Militia standard.

And from the right flank whilst in column of march

Next is a return to the Egyptian Undead theme which sees me finally (after maybe about 15 years!) finishing a box of GW Khemri Charriots... 

I have done at least one of the other two in previous challenges, however, as a kitbashing execise, this one has seen me replace one of the crewmen with a spare mummy figure, (leftover after from an earlier post this challenge).

Complted charriot with crewman and a mummy as it's important passenger.
Tw Horse skulls and two human skulls on this model.

The mummy can be seen better from this angle, I'm out of suitable grass tufts
for a desert so these will be added at a later date when I restock!

I have adjusted this mummy figure by replacing the head with a GW Tomb King's head and adding a rather large spear, again from the GW kit. Painting is basis the same procedures that I have previously detailed.

Close-up of eth crew compartment

And a departing rear shot

By way of a departure on the Undead front I am looking to put together an 'allied' unit of Greek Undead skeletons, armed with spears, the classic round hoplite shields and typical ancient Greek helmets with flamboyant crests.

Completed 5 x Greek Undead Infantry,
I'm cheekily claiming 5 Skull points for these guys, although the
skulls are completly enclosed by their Attic Helmets

Another angle, sorry the auto-focus on camera is messed up by the long spears!

I'm also looking to paint these as specifically Undead Spartans, so the colour theme for the unit will be Red & bone! The figures are Wargames Atlantic Skeleton Infantry  and shields, swords and helmets are 'liberated' from a Warlord Games box of Ancient Spartans.

Again the bases will be improved when I get more grass tufts

Size wise, these two figure sets are a good fit together, a little thinner and shorter than GW Tomb Kings, painting wise it is a similar recipe to the Egyptians above. Cream undercoat, GW Skeleton Horde speedpaint, dry-brushed a bone colour when dry and highlighted with near white.

A Close-up on two of the Greek Undead

Clothes (well rags),  Helmet crests are red, to fit in with the Spartan vibe, with black spear poles and  Brass spear blades, helmets & shields with a red 'V' transfers were used to finish them off.

The other three Greek Undead

Next is another 8 x 28mm Renaissance Crossbowmen, again I won't repeat my painting method as it is the same as noted last week!

Close-up of four of this week's completed batch.

Close up of the other 4 guys

Finally the whole of this week's batch!

AHPC VX: From Mike W - Warhammer Fantasy Goblin Wolf Riders and 28mm Arthurians Skullz Squirrell

 When your Greenskin army already has 40 or so Goblin Wolf Riders the question is do you need another 10 of the little guys!

Completed unit, wolves were undercoated grey, drybrushed white and then give a coat of Army Painter Rune Grey to give them some depth.

The answer is No! I don't need them but I do want them! And I have more to get painted...

Another view of the unit focusing on the command group, in my opinion focusing painting time on some obvous details such as the wolves' mouths, teeth and tongues distracts the viewers eyes away form the less detailed parts!

Over the last few months I have been pulling together Goblin and Wolf parts from eBay and combined with old spares sprues in the loft and garage  I have been able to put together a new unit for the Wolf Rider wing of my army.

And another view, note two skulls on the banner.

Here is that new unit, 10 x Wolf Riders, in the past I have armed my Wolf Rider units with spear and shield and shunned their lighter bow armed brethren. This unit has been given a bow as well as spear and shield, so I can field them as either type. 

The Command group - musician, standard bearer and boss.

Three of the unit, close up

I'm also looking to raise a purely bow armed unit as well if the spare parts allow me to put enough suitable figures together but at present I'm short of what is needed.

The remaining four goblins, you can clearly see they are armed with both Spear and Bow.

Next up is a unit of 10 x 28mm Arthurian Archers, constructed from the Gripping Beast Late Roman Infantry kit.

The completed group of 10 figures

Another view, from the left

And from the right!

I have fixed things up by swapping out some of the Gripping Beast Heads for Victrix counterparts as well as adding a couple of shields to vary the look and feel.

I'm not sure if it is accurate to show the archers placing arrows in the ground ready to fire, but I had some of the Perry arrows in my bits box - so used them

Another close up of three archers.

And the last four.

I painted these figures in grey tunics with blue trim to allow me to add a couple of figures I had painted earlier in this Challenge to give a tabletop strength of 12. Next week more Arthurian Infantry and more Greenskin Odds & Ends and maybe a surprise item, if I have time.

AHPC XIV: From MikeW: 28mm Polish Dragoons & WoR, Emperor's Guard Space Marines plus other bits and pieces

 Hopeflly I will not overload or wonderful minions but as we enter the last weekend of painting, I'll be putting posts into a 'Ready' status as and when I get a good batch of figures completed! Thank You Minions! 😀

Polish figures for my Siege of Vienna project

So today  have a group of Polish soldiers who would have been at the relief of the Siege of Vienna in 1683. There are two mounted figures, an light cavaltyman with a hand axe plus a drummer, who can be added into any suitable dragoon regiment as I but this together. Additionally we have a command base - again likely to be used as dismounted dragoons.

Dragoon Drummer

Dragoon Officer, armed with an axe!

 These guys have the distinctive dragoon and infantry uniforms of some of my existing collection - red trousers with blue knee length jackets, often with red braiding on the chest. Figures were all undercoated in white and then painted in much the same way as most of the others I have described this challenge.

Dragoon command on foot, Officer, Standard and Musketeer

The flag is a generic Polish banner, of the period, taken from the internet.

Another view

Next up, I have a lonely Mexican Grenadier, waiting to join his comrades in my Alamo collection. I found this lonely soul, in my drawer the other day so decided to paint him up. 

A lonely Mexican Grenadier figure found at the bottom of my drawers,
now ready to join his comrades at the Alamo!

Front view!

Next a couple of 40K Space Marines, these are for my new Emperor's Guard Chapter that I have been toying with building an army for. A few months back, as an experiment, I asked the Chat GPT AI site to generate a Space Marines Chapter for me. This is what they came up with  (see here for more details).

I'm putting this down as a test figure,
not overly happy with the way the paint has finished on this guy

Saw earlier today that a recommended undercoat for purple is green!
Will need to give that a try!

So I have done a standard Marine plus his Terminator 'Big Brother' to accompany him

Happier with this big boy, note skull on base
but may come back to this to do some more detail and weathering

Also maybe need to do something with the power fist!

Now a cheeky one pointer for a piece of terrain, a Bretonnian brazier!

Smoking brazier...

My final work for this year's challenge is a group of 31 x Perry plastic War of the Roses 28mm figures, painted to represent part if the retinue of Sir Robert Whittington, in their distinctive green and white livery.

All 31 figures as they enter the battlefield

The group includes 9 x Archers, 5 x Crossbowmen, 8 x Handgunners and 9 x Men-at-Arms, Standard Bearer & Musician etc.

The 9 x Archers, most in livery jackets

Close-up of right of line

And close-up of the left of line

All were undercoated in an 'oatmeal' colour - exact colour is hard to determine as I used hobby paints for this job! I then drybrushed the figures white and concentrated on faces and hands to get a smooth white finish. Skin had GW Darkoath Flesh applied before being highlighted with Army Painter Barbarian Flesh. All metalwork was painted with GW Leadbelcher and then the livery jackets were painted in with white and green halves.

8 x Musketeers

Another close-up

And again

I added various colours to block in leggings, sleeves etc before using a cream colour to paint in padded jackets etc, these were washed with GW Agrax Earthshade for depth and shading.

5 x Crossbowmen

The crossbow arms on these guys came from an Oathmark figure pack, I think!

Armour was washed with Nuln Oil and all other materials were give an Agrax Earthshade wash before varnishing.

Command and Men-at-Arms

Musician and a couple of extra guys

Figures were all based in my usual manner  on old US 1 cent or European 2c coins which are the same size!

Three armoured Men-at-Arms

Sir Robert Whittington with his standard and another family member

So there it is hopefully enough work to get me over the 3,000 point level - something I didn't think I'd have time for this year. Thanks to all the minions and other participants for making this another great challenge and yet again Grahame H. outscores me, the man is a painting machine!