From RossM: 28mm Tafia Kingdoms Skirmishers 10 Points (11 points)

Time has moved quickly this month and there are a few things in the sidelines for submission shortly. 

When starting a new project, regardless of scale I like to put a few stands up that will enable me to complete a core unit or two in the early stages of painting that project. Light infantry and skirmishers are often good in that role and will feature in most versions of the finished project when used. 

Here is the first of several skirmisher units for the recently started x army in ADLG. 

Having used more "Christian" figures for this stand it allows further use of the figures in several different armies across the period. Great believer in getting the best use from a miniature. 

In terms of points, that's 

2 x 28mm infantry at 5 points each. Totalling a whopping 10 points. 

Cheers for now

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I like your style Ross; develop a sensible plan, start with a ubiquitous unit useful in every list to get you off the mark (somehow I always leave psiloi types to last though) and then out yourself for starting a new army to generates a perceived social pressure for you to keep at it. Nice one!

Take a bonus point for your style and sense of noblesse :-)

- Paul

From PaulSS - El Cid Bretheren for Hawkins' Hill (75 points)

"Ah, those poor forgotten miniatures. Here's one for you: Submit something you prepared for Challenge 7 or earlier (or something from at least three years ago if you weren’t a Challenger at that time). "

Well these chaps could tell a story....

Many years ago - probably about 2013 - at the height of my quest to field some huge El Cid forces I put out a request on the Lead Adventure Forum for any old Perry Miniatures First Crusade figures that anybody had and was not painting.

Well a chap who had these Hospitaliers and had primed them and done a bit of basecoating. I got them in the Dettol, stripped them down and primed them again. They were put to one side, then put into a box and bought to the US with me where they languished these past four years and this week they finally got painted. 

They likely count as twice forgotten miniatures.

It's quite a milestone though, as the first month of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge now sees every unpainted figure I had for the El Cid collection painted. The collection now runs to eight "Really Useful Boxes" each one holding about 120 infantry or 50 mounted, that's a weighty amount of painted lead I can now throw at a table.

Points wise I think it should be:

• 4 x 28mm mounted 40pts
• Banner and pennant 2pts
• Bonus for Hawkins' Hill 30pts

For a total of 72pts

Nice brethren Paul. And congrats on finishing painting all your El Cid figures - that's quite a collection. I reckon that completing* the collection surely warrants a further 3 bonus points.

TamsinP

From PaulSS - Needs Moor Camel! (21 points)

All good things come to an end and that includes the few Gripping Beast Moors that I had left in the pile of shame.

These three models are the last that were left unpainted. I do have another eight of these camels, but have no riders for them, so it's finished for any more painting on the Almoravids for a while.

I'm not sure what make the camel is, but the Gripping Beast riders are not a brilliant fit, although this one does sit a little better than the drummer I did last time.

I did note that I managed to splash some of the yellow ochre that I use on the base on that archer on the left, whoops, these things only show up in the photos!

Two 28mm foot and a 28mm camel rider should net me 20 more points towards my total.


When I saw the title of this post, I had assumed it would be for Docherty's Dock, but it appears that camels (well, one anyway) have escaped into the wilds of the Challenge. And with a subtle refrence to the Walken/BOC sketch too - that deserves a bonus point I think.

Beautiful work Paul - 21 well deserved points are coming your way.

TamsinP

From PaulSS - Andalusian Jinetes (65 points)

Todays entry is six Andalusian Jinetes from the Gripping Beast range to be added to my El Cid collection.

These fellows have been in the backlog so long they could easily have counted towards Hawkins Hill, but there is plenty of time and old lead for that. One of them is on the very old original Gripping Beast ponies, likely I could have entered that one for Millsy's Millpond.

I painted these in pairs over the last few days, and the 6" of snow we got yesterday evening meant that though my game was cancelled I did get these done ahead of schedule and have already started on some Berbers.

As with all these old Gripping Beast El Cid models they are a delight to paint and as luck would have it there are still a few left in the backlog of shame that I hope to get done over then next few days.

Six 28mm cavalry should net me 60pts towards my total.

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I know I keep saying this but I love the clean painting style so many of you have.  While I turn out good results, I have a very sloppy back and forth style that provides a very different final result.

I am always so impressed when you guys come up with these awesome clean and bright looks where I can cleanly see that you started from black and never once screwed up and hit the black line dividers....  no idea how you all manage that.

These are simply lovely Paul, awesome work! I am very much jelous of your brushskills on these ones, especially the hand painted shields and patters, for which I am awarding you a bonus 5 points.

- ByronM

From PaulSS - El Cid Almoravid command stand for Docherty's Dock (66 points)

Oooh camels, I'm sure I have some of unknown provenance in the bit's box, but what to do with them?

It's been an absolute age since I added anything new to my Almoravid horde - checks, blog, nearly 3 years - but a scouring of the lead mountain revealed not only ten camels, but some left over Gripping Beast minis, including a mounted drummer who could be bodged onto one of the camels, although is pose is a little awkward, having ridden a camel though I think sitting awkwardly on them is the default.

Of the two rather splendid commanders the one on the right is Abid al-Docherty, ex of the Black Guard and now serving as leader of this merry bunch, on the left is loyal bodyguard Jaysh al-Millsy.

The ensemble is completed with a spearman and standard bearer.

All are done in the white/blue/gold scheme that is the theme throughout my Berber horde. It's quite propitious as I think I needed to do a few more command stands anyways.

I think that this lot should be worth:

4 x 28mm foot - 20pts

1 x 28mm camel and rider - 10pts

1 x Standard - 1pt

1 x Docherty's Dock completion - 30pts

1 x tenuous insertion of Abid al-Docherty and Jaysh al-Millsy - 5pts

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By Paul

Lovely Command stand Paul, nice work! 
 Those colours and hand painted details really pop.

I'm tempted to make all sorts of comments about the realism of the Jaysh al-Millsy figure but its late and he has been doing amazing Community Service work of late - so 66 points it is!

From PeterD - 28mm Berber Light Horsemen (81 points)

OK, it has been several weeks since my last posting.  Part of this was due to illness, part due to a hectic time at work (relatively speaking, my work life is still way simpler than it used to be) and part due to problems with this @#$%&* unit!!

Anyway we have an 8 man unit of 28mm Berber Light Cavalry mercenaries to fight alongside my Andalusians.  The figures are by Hat and produced in a hard plastic, and as such as a little "lighter" than metal 28s.    But the effect isn't bad if one keeps the figures in separate units.  And as I noted on a prior posting, the horses have a very nice fine boned Arab look to them.  The plastics don't paint up as well as metals since the detail is not as clearly defined.  While the plastic is harder than Airfix or Ecsi it lacks the crisp details of the Perry or Victrix plastics.

Anyway I ran into two issue with these guys, both of them originating between the seat cushion and the paint brush.  Issue one was I decided to go with a black primer since there was to be a lot of white on the figures, and I thought it might bring some crispness.  This worked really well with the horses, as the leaving a thin line of black primer gave a very good shading effect and highlighted details.  But it work less well on the riders since it required a lot of second coats with lighter colours (like whites, creams and yellows).  And before anyone asks, I am a "fix the riders on the horses and paint them both as one casting" kinda guy.  Therefore the idea of priming the horses in black and the riders in white isn't gonna fly.

Issue two came when I decided to go for a "Berber Indigo" colour on some of the cloaks and head wear.  Great idea, but an Epic Fail on initial execution.  I used a "primary blue" acrylic with Black washes, and the end result was aptly described by my better half as "too shiny".  So I got grumpy and sick for a while and contemplated binning the lot, but fortunately thought better of it after a while.

One of the advantages of working on campus is that there are neat resources available, like an on site fine art supply store that gives me a staff discount.  So I pottered off to chat up the store manager for ideas.  Her solution for Berber Indigo was a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Carbon Black, plus an optional dab of Dioxazine Purple.  Those are the names given to the Artists Acrylics shades that I work with, but I am sure that GW and other modelling lines have similar shades available with gaddawful names at three times the price (end of rant).  It turned out that my Purple had been binned a while back so I went with the Black and Blue mix but it greatly improved the figures and I rather like the effect.  It also got the approval of my at home colour conscious quilter.  I don't what the visual equivalent of "perfect pitch" is, but she's got it.

The flag is free handed based on Moorish tile designs plus artistic (sic) license.

I am not super enthused by the photos, they came out very dark and I had to play with the exposure and thus messed up the colours a bit.  But these guys are off my to finish list and on the blog roll!

From PeterD - Moorish Horse Archers (81 Points)

Ok no regular posts for 3 weeks and now two in one day – but it took me til the 26^th until I could get painting.  I have completed a unit of 8 Moorish Horse Archers in 28mm to add to my El Cid hordes.  I think that this gives me 80 points towards my very far distant goal….

The figures are hard plastic and produced by HäT, who mostly do a wide range of 20mm figures.  I picked up 3 boxes of 12 figures each on my last business trip through Vancouver in June at Imperial Hobbies, which is a well-stocked store and is conveniently located when traveling by Skytrain to the airport. 

These were the first HäT figures that I have painted, and they in the end produced reasonable results (to my eyes anyway).   The detail is not a clean as found on metals, but the plastic is neither bendy like Airfix nor brittle.  They are also a little lighter in build than metals, but that doesn’t hurt for a LC unit.   In particular the horses are very nice and have the look of fine boned Arabians. I painted them in my artist acrylics with generous washes. 

Originally I tried to line them up so no one was shooting a fellow rider, but after a while I couldn't be arsed...

The shields and flag are free handed, because that’s how I do them.   I may redo the flag later but I am mostly happy with my results. 

I’ll toss my thoughts into the forum on free hand vs. bought flags and shields.  Which is I see no point in paying good money for products that are more frustrating and time consuming than DIY, especially as the results never seem to be worth the bother, cost and time.   Yes I am an old fashioned curmudgeon but my first ancients army was Hoplite Greeks and I handled that so can handle anything else.  As for flags, free handing ancient banners is quick and for Horse’n’Musket I get them free from Warflag, or in some cases DIY on the MacBook.  So if you are buying flags and shield designs, you need to grow a pair and get on with doing it the real way!

From Curt:Great looking figures Peter! I really like how vivid these fellows turned out and, like you, I appreciate the slimness of these horses - they seem to reinforce that these are light cavalry. I also really like the shield and banner, which brings us to our next topic... 

In regards to bought vs hand painted, I have to say that even though I find working with decals a pain I will take them over my freehand efforts any day of the week. There are some patterns, scripts, intricate designs, etc. that demand to be present on particular models (Roman Legionary shields for example) but are just too difficult to paint (especially in repetition) for some, and transfers/decals etc. do the trick nicely. As for banners, Flagdude is my man. A fully animated flag, staffed, finialed and tasseled for the price of a cavalry figure? Sold.

So, I'll happily keep 'my pair', grit my teeth and stick with bought flags and transfers.  But, horses for courses, of course.  :)