From KentG: Barons wars 28mm mounted knights (45pts)

This (past year) I've painted literally hundreds of Barons wars plastic 

knights both Victrix and Wargames Atlantic,

 all of my figures are the Wargames Atlantic make.

I hadn't painted any of the mounted boxsets for myself up till now.

The knights you see before you are mounted versions of the foot

 I painted around 6 months ago, must admit I was a bit worried about trying

to match colours but am surprising happy with the end product.

When I painted this same figure mounted in Victrix i had painted the padding in 

4 layers per square which too me over a week and 

I just could bring myself to do it again.

The shields are my favourite part of the paint job and 

I think makes the figure really stand out.

this next figure is more basic but still has a lot of character, i used extra parts from 

the foot knights set to get the look I was after.

Next up is a French knight that I sat down on Tuesday night and spent 

four and a half hours paint most of which was while chatting with the guys. 

It's a great way to spend the night and quite productive if only one figure done.

Yes probably way to many pics of this one

Once I had completed the knight above this one I just couldn’t help

Myself and started this one which I completed just before the fireworks 

Started going of signalling the end of 2025 and heralding 2026

Group pic of my trusty mounted versions of my knights

Well there you have it the first of 12 knights

Way to much fun and probably to much time but 

Each time I look at them I smile

Points are pretty simple 

4 x 28mm mounted @ 10pms each = 40 pts

From Millsy:

OMG, what a first entry to minion! I was wondering how these would look after you mentioned how many fleur de lis you were painting on a recent chat. Simply amazing is the short answer.

How you've managed such a consistent size and shape across all of them is beyond me. Well done mate, absolutely smashing and worth another 5 points every day of the week.

Cheers,

Millsy

From KerryT: "Oh what a night"....Victrix Medieval Knights (180 points)

Morning, afternoon & evening all

Well, with the sun shining late this afternoon there's a chance that the PVA will dry and allow me to finish this entry.

I've tried to stay on track this week by completing more cavalry, this time Medieval but somewhat generic.

Victrix Knights

I've mentioned in a previous post that I've wandered somewhat aimlessly through the Medieval period, starting off by painting figures for the Barons War and will end up eventually with the War of the Roses.

Along the way there'll be Welsh and Scottish units to battle the English who'll also scrap with the French. I suppose the main focus will on the Hundred Years War, particularly early on.

Therefore needing a quantity of mounted knights and well before I bought my resin printer I bought some of the plastic medieval knights sold by Victrix. At the time I really wasn't sure what I was going to do with them and also bought the available shield transfers.

The figures really are very nice and give a good sense of the movement in a charge and there are lots of variations with 6 charging horse types

I put them together ages ago, well before the challenge and had undercoated them black as I would normally do. The shield transfers though need a white background and a subsequent second undercoat in white followed. Unfortunately this needed to be repeated in several coats and has left me with the feeling that I have spent ages painting these.

Not being a great modeler I found the process of cutting and applying the transfers a little difficult and tedious which took away some enjoyment of completing these figures

This coupled with the need to match the horse type to the individual matching transfers and also to the horses' caparison further constrained the freedom to do what I had wanted

There's a nice mix of heraldry in the designs

On reflection now I think if I bought more I'd probably paint the riders before mounting them and probably also paint the underside of the horses and the inside of the caparisons before mounting them on bottle tops for ease of access.

Unfortunately some of the gloss on the transfers shines through, I'll have to do something about that

Attempting to ride down some Scottish painted earlier in the challenge

Hold, hold, hold

That all sounds more negative that I indented it to sound, don't get me wrong these are lovely figures and superb value for a box of 18. Because they're a tiny bit bigger than other ranges I felt it best to mount 3 of them on bases with a depth of 8cms rather than my usual 6 x6. This is something I would certainly consider again as it does give them a better line of charge effect.

Here are a few pictures that show the various transfers and unfortunately in these pictures you can see the hurried paint jobs on some of these!

I'm not sure that I'll buy any more of these even though I do like them, I'll see how I get on with - I think the rush of painting and basing them has detracted a little from the usual enjoyment. Perhaps I should give them another try, without rushing this time and maybe aim for particular individual or named heraldic shields

Thank you once again for looking

In Summary then

18 x 28mm mounted knights @ 10 points -= 180 points

1 Squirrel

90 can opener side challenge points

Valleyboy

From Millsy:

Brilliant work Kerry!

There's something so very engaging about a group of charging knights, especially when they are each painted differently. It accentuates the sense of dynamism when you can pick out each miniature so clearly and see the flowing caparisons on the horses and the matching tabards on the knights.

No wonder your were wondering at the effort required last week when you mentioned these were undercoated black. The brightness of the colours must have taken a LOT of work but the results speak for themselves.

180 points added to your tally mate.

Cheers,

Millsy

From BartekR: Charging Conquest knights beating the cut in Limbo (155 points)

Greetings all, and glad you can join me for my first post of this, AHPC XV, which is my third attempt at the Snowlord’s dance-through-hell-and-heaven obstacle course of paint and banter.

If this was a sports documentary, there would be some line in this about how I have something to prove. After a decent first outing (AHPC XIII), I aimed high and dropped low and hard in AHPC XIV. So, this year, I’m aiming for a relatively modest 750 points.

With a busy work year, I haven’t much time preparing and indeed planning miniatures. Frankly, with a pile of plastic sitting dormant since last Challenge (and some from the one before), I expect I will be  spending a *lot* of time in limbo. That said, I’m hoping to get a few new things out there – maybe have a swing at some of Dante’s circles, and get out at least one bespoke piece before we wrap up.

So, first up, to get me out of the doghouse of the 21 Jan cut off: Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings Hundred Kingdoms Household Knights. 

In AHPC XIII, I started painting my brother’s Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings Hundred Kingdoms army. Two years on, I’m still going (well, to be fair, my brother has to downsize his armies – so this is an older sibling helping out with pre-sale prep!).

What to say about these? 38mm knights on horses. The figures are large (see comparison with a GW chaos warrior). Since my brother bought his Conquest army secondhand, a number of them were already  block painted using Citadel contrast or similar. While this, I believe, qualifies as putting me in Limbo, these were a focus of a lot of touching up. 

The process

The 'touching up' mostly involved bringing minis into the red/turquoise theme of the army, with a fair bit of work on the red on the cloaks and caparison to gain more depth, and shining up the armour. As it was, the paint work was a dull metallic (heavily washed, probably Nuln Oil). Overall, very dull. Not a bad look but not what I imagined for a resplendent household knight cavalry on the charge. This was fixed by hitting them with metallics again, and then a brushed-on gloss varnish.

Admittedly harder to see in photo, but the difference between dull and touched-up and glossed metal

The new build figures - including the standard bearer - followed the same process. Without the original recipe for the paint work, here the the challenge with was getting a good colour match. Needless to say, Citadel Carroburg Crimson wash was relied on to get the red of the cloaks approximate.

And more horse butts

A last note on the rider with the pennant. The command element for this called for a musician, but there wasn't any option for one on the sprues I had. So, to distinguish the figure, I used an open helmet from an infantry set and added the pennant – metal foil from a wine bottle top!

Process wise the I rediscovered (yet again) that despite having a  generous work space, after a few days of working on the bench the inevitable spread of paint droppers/pots effectively corners me on a hand's width rump of desk space to work on, before I'm pushed off the table completely. Trying to be better about keeping this aspect of the painting process under control! 

The result 

Standard question when I finish painting: am happy with them? Given the Challenge and these prompted me to pick up a brush for the first time in a year, yes. Sure, given their generous scale I would love to be more precise and bring out more of the detail, but happy enough. They were an opportunity to use up more of my legacy Citadel paints (particularly washes), having bought a set of the Army Painter Fanatic range - which i'm quite happy with. One aspect I am keen to try out is a new matt varnish - the brushed-on Vallejo matt (on the cloaks etc) was far too satin for my liking (despite vigorous mixing/shaking) so I will be keen to try out some AK Interactive Ultra Matt when it arrives.

The points

With Monday Minion Millsy's agreement, I have scored these as for 40mm:

9 x 40mm cavalry @15 pts each: 135 pts

Limbo bonus: 20 pts

Total: 155 pts

  ...in the background

Probably like most, music or audiobooks accompany my painting. Through he painting of these I was listening to the Joe Abercrombie First Law trilogy audiobooks, which I highly recommend - English actor Steven Pacey's narration is top notch.

From Millsy:

Lovely brushwork on the knights Bartek! I really like your colour choices and the basing sets them off very nicely indeed.

Great to hear that the Challenge motivated you to pick the brush up again, it's a wonderful motivator and hopefully the enthusiasm will persist beyond the end of March.

155 points to kick start your Challenge!

Cheers,

Millsy

From MattW: Directors Chair - Chevalier thunder 70 points

 Chevalier Thunder

My final entry in the studio challenge is my Snow Lords director chair entry, “Chevalier thunder”, where you will see no open helmet on the battlefield, nor wild explosions, or fire arrows. The hope of every medieval fans prayers answered, just knights riding down peasant levy and archers…. These chaps will join my French army for my Mad War - Breton war of independence army. Miniatures are from the Perry plastic WOTR range, based for Impetus. 

Perry Miniatures WOTR knights

28mm x 5 mounted @10 points = 50 points 

Directors chair studio = 20 points 

Cheers 

MattW

____________________________

Lovely work Matt! Your work on their livery and lances is impressive. They definitely look ready to run down filthy peasants and pesky archers. They better get in their screen time before the director decides on a rewrite. Huzzah! 

- Curt

From Guy B: [Knights Solar] Scottish Knights [60 points]

I made it to the Knights Solar and with a few hours to spare! Sadly, no time for any more painting, so I'll post what last few models I have. Firstly, there are some knights...

Pictured here is a hybrid model with parts from the Conquest knights with parts from the Fireforge Knights and a single head from the Wargames Atlantic plastic Irish. 

He is the first of several mounted knights or serjeants to finish off my Scots. Alas, the rest wait on the side waiting for some more paint.

Next are two Knights from the excellent Antediluvian Wars of the Bruce range. I like how these dismounted knights are properly armed with spears. 

Here are two more from the range. These will eventually be a unit of six (for Lion Rampant) with a few extras to make a larger unit for other systems.

Finally, we have two left-overs from my Scots. These Islesmen models weren't quite finished in time for my original posting.  So that's one mounted, and six foot figures. I estimate 60 points.

From GeorgeS - Knights Solar - ( 30 Points)

       I'm back again and here we have another Old Toy Soldier come to life!! ( yes,..again..haha)

     This is a Kelloggs ( made by Crescent?) plastic Knight in 1:32 scale from the 60's. Arrived to me in a bad scratched and playworn condition, but fortunately , unpainted and complete. No missing or broken parts. The plastic surface was very damaged and it is still visible in it's face. I didn't want to correct something there as it would be a disaster.. So painted the face over the scratches..

    Another beautiful little old guy for my collection! Hope you enjoy  :) 

       Running against the clock now, to paint a female figure for Lady Sarah since I have no creative idea for the next room... See you soon again...(hope so!) 

'Till next time

Keep Up the Brushes!!