From SanderS: Noel's Comet: A Soldiers Farewell! (50 points)

 Hoi,

Here we are at Noel's Comet and for me that's the end of my regular Challenge posts. For quite some time I have been contemplating what to use as entry for this planet and it took me a while to put it all together in a, to me at least, satisfactory way.  

Let me show you the figures first and as this is a Laarden 1702 post let me put up the Laarden Logo down below and tell you how it came to be. An uncle of mine is a retired woodworker who has had a shop repairing antique furniture for ages. He can track down his family-line through 400 years of woodworkers (no lie, really true) and he has repaired the desk I sit at now as well as one of the large wardrobes standing in my hobby-room. He also had to learn wood-carving and thus drawing designs for it. Well the guirlande or mirror making up the Laarden 1702 logo is one of his old designs I found accidentally and had a coworker of mine put into computer graphic for digital use.

As far as the post goes here we go:

The vignette is made up of figures from Colonel Bill's own line and aptly named "A Soldier's Farewell". 

This vignette is supposed to represent my 1702 (here still 1688) equivalent joining the Sun King's army and that is the miniatures for this post settled. They should net me 3 foot figures in 28mm is 15 points, one mounted figure 10 points and the comet's bonus of 20 points for a total of 45 points.

Yet there's also a story that should go along with a Noel's Comet post and what is more fitting than a story about Noel himself?

Let me take you back in time a few years, it's December 29th 2017 and I am about to start my one and only Tour of Duty as a Minion. One of the new Challengers that season happened to be a kind gentleman named Noel Williams. I would like to take some time to talk about dear Noel as he has left us all last year for the Big Typewriter in the Heaven. For those of you who didn't know Noel, or who have just joined the Challenge, I will let him introduce himself:

 "I'm a retired academic living in Sheffield, UK. Like many wargamers, I began with Airfix figures in childhood, and still have the same passion for new figures that I had in 1960 when I'd run to the local toyshop with 2 shillings in hand (that's 10p, for you youngsters). So I’ve amassed a large amount of unpainted lead and plastic, which seems to grow every year, despite my best efforts with the paintbrush. I'm interested in most periods up to WW2 – anything more recent unsettles me somewhat – but the battlefields I keep coming back to are Napoleonic. I like the spectacle of uniforms and flags, so tend to go for smaller units so I can get more variety on the tabletop. I’m also a writer (poet and occasional fiction) so I write the odd piece for the wargames press, too. Luckily, all my family are gamers, so we’ve a dedicated wargames room, and figures of various kinds scattered around the house. I used to be a very good painter – won some prizes etc – but these days various infirmities, particularly eyesight, make it more difficult to get a decent job done. The Challenge is a great incentive for me, and I’m hoping to get many more figures done than the 500 points I set as my target."

Noel wrote this introduction because I thought it would be nice to have all the Tuesday crew of that Challenge introduce themselves and so I am pretty sure he wouldn't mind me sharing this with you. During my Tour of Duty I had quite an animated mail exchange with Noel and even after the Challenge ended we sporadically spoke through mail. In December 2020 I read some of Noel's articles in Wargames Illustrated and Miniature Wargames and mailed him with a few questions and some thoughts about his writings, he seemed to like to get that kind of feedback and in one of his replies he mentioned he was writing an article for WI concerning the Challenge itself. 

Noel asked whether I would mind if the article included a photograph of Arthur and me, of course I was honoured and agreed, that was the last time I heard of Noel. Shortly afterwards I read some posts on Noels Facebook page that seemed to indicate he had passed on. The latter turned to be the case sadly and so I was mightily surprised and touched to find that January's issue of WI included a posthumously published article about the Challenge featuring the bespoke photo as well as some heartwarming words concerning my son. 

In his last mail to me, Noel wrote what Curt and the Challenge meant to him and again I think he wouldn't mind me sharing that with you all:

"Your notes on Curt and Sarah do not fall on deaf ears. It is already in my plan to be as positive as I can be about not only the whole experience of the Challenge, but also those two generous beings who enable it to happen. It's not going to be difficult to think of praiseworthy things to say, though obviously I shan't turn it simply into a puff piece about them. I will, as always, aim to be as honest as I can be, but also to ensure that what I write up is accurate and thorough (and, hopefully, interesting) - and inevitably it will be impossible to document the Challenge without implied or explicit praise for Curt (and, indeed, the minions) in pretty much every paragraph. 

Unlike you, I don't have the honour of meeting them f-t-f, nor am I ever likely to. However, it's obvious from the way they communicate with us, as well as Curt's occasional private emails (as well as the enthusiasm with which he agreed to the article) that he's definitely one of the Good Guys. More than that, by the way he offers feedback on so many posts (always positively, always helpfully where needed) he creates an environment where everyone else can see what it is to "behave well" in the context of the Challenge. This is the sort of behaviour of good leaders, where his example in painting (how does he do it?), in organising the various scurrying contributors and in good manners creates a situation where everyone taking part wants to do the same. 

You can see I've already initial thoughts on what might be said about Curt! I simply won't be able to describe my experience of the Challenge - which has been hugely rewarding - without expressing how inspiring it can be, and that inspiration is very much down to the man and woman who run it. 

So I don't think you need to worry that the piece will be in any way understated about him or the success he's created. Of course, my experience of the Minions - now, that could be a different matter...!"

 From the short pieces I have quoted above and his articles in WI and MW you can see his talent in writing for yourselves. I miss Noel and his glorious posts a lot especially his humour but I am sure he would want us all to enjoy the Challenge, be inspired and inspiring by it, and to each other.

Rest easy Noel...

There's a soldier in the vignette that I really couldn't think up a good role in my Laarden tale for and so I pondered whether to include it or not. Then inspiration hit me and I thought that it would be fitting to let the figure represent Noel, who is surely still with us on this great voyage that is the Challenge and celebration of our joined hobby.

That's it for me folks see you all in the "End of Challenge posts"! 

Cheers Sander

What a great tribute to a sorely missed Challenger - Noel was truly one of a kind. I'm sure he'd approve of his "spirit" being included in that wonderful vignette.

I'm adding some points for the terrain of the vignette.

Tamsin

From SidneyR: The Last Stand of the Regiment de Louvigny for "The Altar of the Snowlord" (66 points)

 

"Sound trumpets!  Let our Bloody colours wave!

And either victory, or else a grave!"

Henry VI, Part 3 (Act 2, scene 2)

And so, after three months, I've finally arrived at the Snowlord's Altar, bearing - as requested by Curt - a submission featuring casualties and a dramatic final stand for Challenge XI.  

To meet that challenge, I've painted the valiant last stand of the French Regiment be Louvigny, from 1688 - a suitably terminal, but hopefully honourable, end to a great Challenge.

Challenge accepted and - I hope - completed, dear Snowlord!

I have to admit, that when I planned out what I wanted to do, I did wonder if it would work.  What I had in mind was a centrepiece for a large skirmish in which the "shipwrack" of a French battalion could (possibly) be rescued from Flemish and Spanish enemy forces by a relieving French brigade.  It would suit an evening's wargaming, or perhaps be a smaller table in a day's gaming.

The small "slots" for two micro-dice are there to record casualties and cohesion.  As the regiment in its battered state is not really functioning as a working formation, there's no need to identify the pike and shot separately in any normal basing formation.  That's the plan, anyway.  

So, rather than just a 'casualty base', I could use the Last Stand as a half-way house between functioning battalion and a mere marker for routed troops.

After deciding on the type of base I wanted, it was really just a case of deciding which figures I wanted.  I chose a blend of of pike and shot, officers and soldiers, a drummer, and a blend of dead, wounded and still-healthy troops.  

I perhaps could have done better in painting the standard, which looks a little too pristine for any 'last stand'.  And maybe the casualties could have been a bit more numerous.  But, on the whole, given a day or so to prepare it, I thought it should hopefully pass muster on most tabletops.  

The perfect is, of course dear friends, the enemy of the tabletop-standard.

The Regiment de Louvingy is for my late seventeenth century 1688 Flanders collection, so I tried to make the figures fit with the other units and formations by adding green-stuff feathers, lace, ribbons and swapping the Officer's right arm from carrying a standard to more nobly raising his sword towards the Flemish and Spanish enemies-of-his-blood.  

I took the uniform of the Regiment de Louvigny from Mark Allen's fine book "Armies & Enemies of Louis XIV: Volume 1 - Western Europe 1688-1714" (published by Helion).  The real Regiment de Louvigny is a rather forgotten, anonymous regiment - so I felt it was time to bring its soldiers back to the grand stage of European warfare on the wargames table.

The figures are a mix of Dixon Miniatures and Wargames Foundry, with a Colonel Bill's casualty figure added at the front.  The splendid, and very versatile, gabions are from Frontline Wargaming.  The base is  a terrain base from Warbases, who also made the micro-dice slots.  The tufts are from WSS Scenics.

No one makes the standard for the Regiment de Louvigny - so I painted it myself.  I wish I had battered it about a little more - ah well, next time, I'll know better!

So for the points - there are eight standing and two prone figures on the base, with the standing being 5 points each (totally 40 points) and the prone figures being half-points (total of 5 points) - totalling 45 points for the figures (and can I maybe add an extra one point for the hand-painted flag?), bringing that to 46 Points.  With adding the 20 for the final "Altar of the Snowlord", that's a total of 66 Points.

And because this is a submission featuring the ludicrousness of my fictional campaign for the Free-City of Laarden, in 1688, here's the Challenge XI Collectible Card for the "Last Stand of the Regiment de Louvigny" - the last of the eleven cards for Challenge XI.  

Did you collect the full set, dear Challengers?

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From SidneyR: The Tomb of Sint Jacobus for "The Tomb" (57 points)

 

For my visit to "The Tomb", I've painted a jumble of figures from various manufacturers.  They all have something to do with dead things, however....

The first thing I thought of for the Tomb was a praying guardian, perhaps one of the Brothers of Sint Jacobus from my fictional Laarden project for the late seventeenth century.  A member of a monastic order tasked with the sacred duty of guarding and observing the relics of Laarden's greatest saint - just in case, on the off-chance, a miracle might just... you know... happen.

The Brothers missed out on being in my Challenge for last year, so it's been good for my soul to add one of the Brothers to this Challenge XI.

The Brother is a Bicorne Miniatures monk, from their 'War Correspondents" range.  It's a venerable sculpt, in the Peter Gilder/ Connoisseur style.  While it didn't look great out of the packet, like many older figures it's a joy to paint and starts to very effective on the table at the three foot range or more.  Striking, highly contoured, and with a 'mannered' style, I can see Prior Willem adding a touch of ecclesiastical pedigree to many of our games from the Dark Ages to the Napoleonic era.  

I added the same Milliput cobbles with my fancy greenstuff roller which I'd used for my "Armoury" submission earlier in this Challenge.  I also placed the Brother alongside a really strange miniature - something from Games Workshop which might best be described as a box of body parts.

There's a skull, a lot of bones, a non-decayed head (which is quite handsome for a severed head) and a steel gauntlet.  Could these be the Sacred relics of Sint Jacobus himself, dear Challengers?  

Perhaps so, which explains the Brother's dedication in committing his prayers to parchment.  I was taken by the idea, and I thought the Holy Saint needed a more striking and expensive velvet cover for his once-mortal remains. I made the 'velvet' covering with some wine-bottle foil and a greenstuff fringe, painted the velvet in deep scarlet and the fringe in Venetian Gold.  Fancy stuff indeed.  Nothing but the best for Sint Jacobus, my friends.

A few tufts of grass weeds, poking through the cobbled paving of the Tomb, completed the base.  I liked the slightly creeping feel of decay in the miniatures, even down to the rickety old wooden box which Sint Jacobus' remains are resting in, contrasted with the miraculous preservation of the Saint's hands and handsome head.  I doubt the bottle of herbal liqueur, warming Prior Willem in his arduous duties, will have the same longevity - though it might have miraculous properties all of its own.

Here's Prior Willem's ludicrous Character Card from the "Enemies and Allies of Laarden, 1688" Collectible Card Collection for Challenge XI....

Alongside one of the Brothers of Sint Jacobus, there's a Banshee.  I thought this went well with the Tomb, and she is also a female banshee - to transport me back, with the intercession of the good Lady Sarah, to the 'Hall of Ancestors' on the Second Level of the Challenge Chambers.

It's been a while since I painted a ghost (or a wraith or banshee).  But with a mix of dry-brushing (light grey) and washes (mainly blue, green and grey), the details picked out fairly easily on the Games Workshop miniature.

Finally, as this is "The Tomb", I thought I better add one.  Midlam Miniatures make a very fine tomb with a noble knight on the outer covering and a tiny skeleton inside.  Just the thing for placing in a spooky temple, church or monastery.

So, for the points, there's a 28mm Brother, and a Banshee (5 points each, adding to 10 points).  I hope to claim 5 points for the tomb (half points for the prone knight and the prone skeleton inside!), and then a couple of points for the bones of Sint Jacobus.  All of the bones in Sint Jacobus' box do, I think, complete an entire person, but he is prone - so just two points, dear Challengers.  That would collect 17 points, and with the 20 points for "The Tomb" gives a total of 37 points, and adding in the extra 20 points for a Lady Sarah Bonus (back to Hall of the Ancestors), brings that to 57 points.

I'm praying that's correct. (Yup.  Sorry.  That was a pun). If its not... the flagellation can commence in the discrete surroundings of the Brothers' dormitory...

So how am I doing with my creation of Character Cards for the "Enemies and Allies of Laarden, 1688" Collectible Card Collection for Challenge XI?    I am sure with whatever is happening in the real world, it's the question everyone is really asking this Friday morning.  So far, there's now seven cards with the addition of the Brothers of Sint Jacobus, with three more scheduled to appear.  

Maybe, just maybe, there might be even one more after that, if my prayers to Sint Jacobus are answered.  I better stare at his remains for another hour.  That'll help.  Can someone pass me the herbal liqueur, please?

******* 

From SidneyR: “A Demonstration of Armes!”, Laarden 1688 (‘Armory’ - 50 points’)

 

“Mijnheer Glouw? My good Sir, you are most welcome. I am delighted that one of the Laarden Field Deputies has decided to grace us with their presence at this Demonstration of Armes. The Council of Laarden received my letter sent to the Hall of Deputies? Excellent, excellent. What can I show you first, Mijnheer? The English dog-locks? German long-pistols? Or maybe our finest Swedish flintlocks, just arrived from our contacts in the Baltic?

“Maybe I can offer you something more martial - perhaps a Nuremberg cavalier’s rapier? I am at your convenience, my Lord. And you’ll see we have contracts available for signature now, prepared in duplicate - yes, over by the crates of musquettes, just by the side of that rather exceptional Hungarian Szekszárd. I can also supply a crate of those bottles to your herenhuis, Sir, if you like a full bodied red..."

“Ah... my associates, you ask? They’ve served in my Company from the mountains of Serbia, through the black forests of Wallachia and into the frozen marshes of Courland. My associates are both experts in the art and manufacture of weapons, and are veterans of many engagements. I can see you’re interested in the English dog-lock pistol being wielded by Hans? A wise choice, Mijnheer Glouw, a wise choice - as I would expect from a gentleman of your discerning tastes, and - dare I say - your growing reputation. Allow us to effect a demonstration...”

*******

For my “Armory” submission, I’ve staged a demonstration of arms by the famed (and fictional) Imperial military enterpriser, Count Konrad von Hexendorf. A glittering array of arms, “musquettes”, pistols and halberds. Who could fail to be impressed?  Count von Hexendorfcertainly seems to have charmed the representative of the Laarden Council of Deputies, one of the senior members of the noble Flemish family of Glouw.

Unfortunately, it is possible that the bona fides of ‘Count Konrad von Hexendorf” are less than impeccable. The impressive weapons are genuine enough, but many of the crates which could be supplied may be looted from various sub-standard citadels throughout the German lands. It’s always suspicious for the contract terms to be drawn up, ready for signature, before the negotiation begins. 

And those bottles of Hungarian wine from Szekszárd are perhaps a little too prominently displayed. Perhaps Count von Hexendorf has been forewarned concerning the florid features of Lord de Glouw?

And those uniforms of Hans and Pavel - they are perhaps just a little too theatrical, exotic and - Lord forbid - just too martial to be practical?

I’m just suggesting the possibility, fellow Challengers… but, do you think ... a charlatan might be at work?

*******

I needed a fair sized base for the submission, and I had a few items of 3mm hardboard lying around. I cut one to shape and rolled out a base of milliput, which I then covered with the GreenStuff World pavement roller I used for the Greyscale Chamber, and my ‘Nightwatch’ submission. I found the milliput a total pain to use - adding water makes it workable, but it’s a horribly slimy substance to work with. I was cursing the Hobby Gods while I rolled it out, I confess, dear Challengers. On the plus side, the milliput dries rock hard - just remember to do all the trimming and sculpting while it’s damp and/or soft.

One advantage of the milliput is that you can press the figures into the putty before it’s dry to create locating ‘plugs’ for the figures to stand in. I added the crates and barrels that way, along with the weapons. The figures are a jumble of conversions and spares box oddments, but are from Wargames Foundry. Lord de Glouw is an ECW nobleman, and his factotum is from the Wargames Foundry Marburian range with a swapped Redoubt ECW head. “Count von Hexendorf” is from an ECW command set, and Hans and Pavel are from the ECW and Renaissance Polish range, respectively. I added extra green-stuff feathers, lace and longer hair to the various models to make them look a little more baroque.

Lord de Glouw’s florid features come from a glaze with Vallejo Model Wash ‘flesh tone’, but I used Army Painter washes on the other figures (a Christmas present from my long suffering wife, Nicola).

I designed von Hexendorf’s printed marketing pamphlet in PowerPoint, and reduced it size for printing in 28mm scale. A few miniature copies of the pamphlet are littered across the scene, by the wine, and dropped on the cobbles. 

The improvised target is a scratch built easel made from plasti-card, with a reduced scale print of Louis XIV as the target. (I am sure that Count von Hexendorf probably used a print of the Emperor or King of Spain when selling weapons to the French). There are spare prints, rolled up, around the back of the crates, in case the shooting demonstration decimates the print being used. 

However, at least one of the “musquette” balls seems to have missed. What kind of “veterans” are Pavel and Hans, one might wonder...

The letters of recommendation (perhaps forged) and the contracts by the bottles of Hungarian wine are simply written on tea-stained paper and glued down with PVA onto the base.

The ‘straw’ is cuttings from a floor mat and the autumn turning leaves came from ‘Antenociti’s Workshop’.

And because this is all part of my ludicrously indulgent Laarden 1688 project, here’s the accompanying Collectible Character Card for “Count von Hexendorf”, together with the other Collectible Character Cards in this Challenge XI so far.

All that’s now left is to see is whether Count von Henendorf is all that he seems. Feel free to join me in the dice roll, dear Challengers:

Dice roll (D6)	The “Financier or Fraud” Table
1, 2	“A most impressive demonstration of Armes” : You’re impressed, the wine is excellent and you sign the contracts. The only unnerving thing is the breadth of Count von Hexendorf’s smile, barely impaired by his tobacco stained teeth.
3, 4	“We need guns... lots of guns”: You don’t need new fancy English pistols but you need an awful lot of muskets. And none of those fancy French “musquettes” the Count keeps talking about. You take the crates of weapons that the Count has brought and ask to triple his standard order. You optimistically wonder if he can supply horses as well? The Count, Hans and Pavel all smile broadly in unison and open another bottle of the very good Hungarian wine.
5, 6	“Who is this peacock?” Your grandmother knows more about French dragoons than the “Count” does. You rumble von Hexendorf, who shuffles around suspiciously and makes various excuses, most of which involve blaming ‘market conditions’ for a dodgy mis-firing “musquette”. Later that night, your factotum spies “Count” von Hexendorf, Hans and Pavel loading crates of damaged and mis-firing weapons onto an old wagon in Guldensporenstraat.

For the points, there’s five 25mm figures at 5 points each (25 points), plus 20 for the Armoury theme, totalling 45 points. I thought that the rest of the base might be worth a couple of points - say 2 for the base and maybe 3 for the weapons - well, they are the latest technology, after all. That would total up to... 50 points.

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