KenR - 28mm Prussian Napoleonic Artillery (120 points)

 

Hello everyone, its great to be back in the swing of the Challenge again. And here is my slightly delayed first entry of this year, a 28mm Prussian Napoleonic 6pdr Foot Battery using Perry Miniatures.

There are 4 gun models each based separately with 4 crew on 60 x 90 bases and form part of an ongoing Plancenoit Project (both sides) and this will form one half of my main focus this year, Points wise there are 16 28mm figs at 5 pts each (80) plus 4 crew served weapons at 10 each (40) for a total of 120.

I was hoping to get these in before Christmas and had the figures done but when I went to the box of bases there were none the right size 😕 so I started on some Cavalry, then found some bases I could join together to get the right size so went back, to these !

I recently retired so I'm hoping to get a lot done this year and have set myself a huge but I think achievable target of 2500, so I better get a shift on. My other main project will be, surprise, surprise Italian Wars, I am expanding my Swiss, which I haven't touched for a while as well as some Spanish so expect to see some of those soon.

Behind the scenes Day 1 of the Challenge is always horses day for me, using my oil paint method it's much more efficient to do them in big batches so I had a load undercoated ready to go and did the oil wipe stage on Day 1, getting some Italian Wars, Napoleonic and Crusades stuff ready. The horses are all dry now and I'm working on some already, they all need hooves, saddles, reigns etc painting but a good start.

Some Cavalry next then onto some Swiss.

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Welcome back to the Challenge, Ken! Congratulations on your recent retirement. It must be so nice to be able to focus on the fun things in life like playing games and painting toy soldiers. Sounds like bliss to me!

Your Prussian guns look terrific and ready to lay down some fire on the perfidious French. 

I look forward to seeing your Plancenoit project come into being. Now, bring on the cavalry! 

- Curt

From BobV: Two SYW Brigades [Overdue and Returns] (320 points)

 Hello again all!

As I am sure some of you can sympathize, I have a lot of unpainted lead. My goal for this challenge is to finish off all of my unpainted 18mm Napoleonics. So far I've succeeded in finishing off a couple of brigades and I am within sight of reaching my goal with just a couple of brigades left. However, the monotony of painting only Napoleonics was risking my mojo and I decided that I needed to break out something else to keep my interest up and keep me going. I am aware that one might argue that the similarities between armies only 50 or so years apart are too minuscule to make any difference in interest, but I'll get to that point in a minute.

In addition to my Napoleonic armies, I have a decent collection of unpainted SYW armies. This portion of the collection goes back more than 30 years. My painted figures from this collection are old minifigs that were painted as a newlywed on our then new glass top coffee table (yes I painted at great risk). The remaining unpainted figures have resided in an old dusty box since the late 80's. I believe that qualifies for the Overdue Library Section Bonus. To rejuvenate  my painting spirit, I decided to break them out and see what I could do with them.

Here is the initial now completed batch:  

There are at total of 12 battalions of 15mm Prussians and Austrians. (144 figures). Each side has four battalions of line and two battalions of grenadiers. I am unsure of the manufacturer but I believe that the figures are from Old Glory. I have no recollection of who made the flags.  

SYW has always been one of my favorite eras to to study, paint and game. The era was at the cusp of modern organized armies and thus balances the uniformity of regimental dress and the variety of independent units. I enjoy the wider variety of uniform choices and the flair of colors and lace. It may not seem like it to some, but this set was much more fun to paint than the my last brigade of simple redcoats. 

These figures are based for Tod Kershners's Warfare in the Age of Reason Rules. The rule set has always been one of my favorites. It was a gift from my father. He wasn't a huge fan of my hobby but I did convince him to visit the Emperor's Headquarters in Chicago once when he was on a business trip. He was much more excited about the sausage he found in the Emperor's Polish neighborhood than he was about visiting "some damn hobby shop" but he made the effort and that set of rules remains special to me to this day. Here are some closer photos:

These need a bit more work before I am completely happy with them. The flag edges need painting and some other minor clean up, but for the most part they are ready to go on campaign.

For Points I am claiming the following

144 15mm Infantry @ 2 pts    =                                       288 Points

 Bonus points for Overdue Section of the Library =          20 Points

                                                                                  Total 308 Points

I'll be back again soon with more Napoleonics. Happy Monday.

Sylvain: Lovely stands of figurines! The old esthetics of rows of similarly posed miniatures has its charm. I will add a few points (12) for all the flags waved by your units. I enjoyed reading about your risky business of painting on the new coffee table and the good will of your father who found some kind of compromise between sausages and wargaming. Awesome painting job!

From GregB: 28mm Prussian Dragoons for Franco-Prussian War of 1870 (120 points)

28mm Prussian Dragoons, ready to advance into France in 1870!

One of the great recurring themes of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is tackling overdue projects. Sure - we are constantly distracted by new things, or starting new projects (or maybe just me?) - but those figures you had purchased, set up and primed, but, for whatever reason, just couldn't get under the brush...this Painting Challenge is a prime time to tackle those dormant, stranded projects. In this spirit, I present these 12 Prussian Dragoons for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These are 28mm figures from Wargames Foundry.

Red facings on this lot...

I started doing the Franco-Prussian War back in...2017, I think? Something like that - the "before times", at any rate. I so love the setting, I do it in different scales! In 28mm, I have been using the Wargames Foundry range for my "Black Powder" efforts in this setting. At the outset, for Prussian cavalry, I wanted a unit of Dragoons, as there was often a Dragoon regiment joined to the Prussian infantry units. I ordered some Dragoons from Wargames Foundry, enough for one unit - 12 figures. 

Painting horses is a drag, but I do love cavalry...

Yet when I finally got round to painting them in the summer of 2018, I saw there had been a mistake (either by me, or by Foundry - both are possible, although the former is more likely). I had two command packs, instead of one. This should not have been any kind of issue, but I have OCD-adjacent hobby quirks...I could not mentally resolve having two command figures within one regiment, even though the odds that anyone would besides me would ever notice were  vanishingly small. I sorted this by painting up two half-regiments...two units of six figures each...and told myself I would just order more regular Dragoon troopers to finish out the units. I noted to myself at the time that I would do this "very soon". 

So...fast-forward to 2021...lots of stuff going on, I was moving house...and as the 2021 Painting Challenge came about, I told myself "I am so damn tired of looking at those half-units of Dragoons on my display shelf downstairs! THIS year, I will get them finished up." I duly ordered the requisite figures from Wargames Foundry...I even built them and primed them...and...well, got distracted by other stuff, insert excuses here, etc. etc.

Dragoons were often attached to Prussian infantry divisions - this is why there were my first selection for 28mm cavalry for my Franco-Prussian War project

In the interim, the Perry brothers released their own new sculpts for the Franco-Prussian War in 28mm. This included brand new - and arguably, much, much nicer - sculpts for Prussian Dragoons. But I was committed to the Foundry range, at least for these figures. Having started with Foundry, I wanted to finish with Foundry (which, of course, are also sculpted by the Perry twins..but anyway)...nonetheless, such useless contemplation on whether to switch over to Perry Dragoons fuelled further procrastination on this specific aspect of this project...

Fast-forward to 2022, the Painting Challenge looming...THIS TIME I MEAN IT, I'M GOING TO FINISH THOSE DRAGOONS, FOR F*CK SAKES! IF I HAVE TO LOOK AT THOSE HALF-UNITS ON THE DISPLAY SHELF EVEN ONE MORE TIME...and I am so pleased to report success! So you see 12 troopers here...six with yellow facings, and six with red facings. They will be joining their previously-painted fellows in my display! I now have two full units of Prussian Dragoons in 28mm! 

While I would expect the newer Perry sculpts would look better, the Foundry ones are still classics - like painting up old friends. Yes, they are monopose...and the molds are getting old. But I just loved painting these up. It was fun! Why did I wait, anyway? Ah, the hobby squirrels in my brain...

I was pleased to be able to pretty-much match the paints and colours after a four-year gap in completing these units. It's not perfect...in this interim, f*cking Liquitex stopped making their "natural sand" product that I used for my basing, so they don't match perfectly, but I applied a liberal dose of grass tufts, and it looks more than good enough for me. 

Finally! Two full, proper units on the display table!! About damn time!!!

The best part is now looking at my shelf, and seeing all of the units in the collection at full strength! About bloody time!

For points, we have 12 mounted 28mm troopers - should be good for 120 points. Thanks for reading - and I hope you all have a chance to savour that moment when you knock off a long-overdue project! Now...what distraction will take my brushes?

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Ahh, it's wonderful to see you back revisiting your Franco-Prussian War project, Greg. While perhaps becoming a little long in the tooth, these dragoons look fabulous, especially under your talented brush. I expect you will find MANY sympathetic ears with you describing half-finished units and best intentions (I have run out of fingers and toes with my quick calculations). Anyway, they look great and will look even better when we get them on the tabletop for a game. 

Great work dude!

- Curt

From GregB - More 10mm FPW Infantry and Command (45 points)

More 10mm troops for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Figures from Pendraken.

Hi everybody! To the surprise of nobody, my next submissions includes even more 10mm subjects for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These are all metal castings from Pendraken. There are three bases of French line infantry, one base of Prussian line infantry and another command base for the French.

Deadly Chassepot rifles at the ready.

Firing lines will be the friend of any French player in the FPW period.

I've raved previously about how cool the French line infantry uniforms are from this period (and they are SO cool) so that makes painting these little regiments a lot of fun. The three bases together will represent an infantry unit. My planning is such that each base would generally represent a battalion, and thus the three bases together would represent a regiment, but there are a lot of different rules that give you different options on perspective - this could just as easily represent a brigade, or each base could represent a company etc. whatever. I really like rules that are agnostic about that kind of thing.

Senior command base for the French.

Actual senior commanders would have had smaller flags...but screw it.

He's thinking "how can I snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?"

The command base is meant to represent a more senior level of officer group - like many of you, the more figures on the base, the more senior the command. Here we have a mounted senior officer, with some flunkies, and a flag, so this would be something like a corps commander.

Prussian line infantry, ready to advance!

The Pendraken sculpts are just fantastic.

So far, so French. In AHPC XI my 10mm work has been on French troops - so why only this one single base of Prussians in this submission? Well, I had finished a bunch of Prussians and Bavarians already over the past couple years, and it made sense to focus on building up the French in this edition of the Challenge. With that said, I was doing a review of the little soldiers on my shelf (as one does), and I noticed that, for whatever reason, my Prussians were still a single base short of having an entire Corps' worth of Prussian line infantry (on the basis that one base = one battalion). This irked me (as these sorts of things do), and so painted these guys up to round things out.

One more look at the French lingards...

Of course, no project is ever actually "finished", these figures do represent something of a waypoint for my 10mm FPW efforts - I have enough stuff painted to stage the Battle of Wissembourg as described in Bruce Weigle's awesome "1870" rule set - I even have enough French finished to play the alternative versions of the scenario he offers! That works out to 65 bases of infantry, 20 bases of cavalry, 28 bases of artillery, and 18 different command bases. I'm not about to stop there, but this a nice point to pause and smile a little. Now I just need to get them on to the table...but my thanks to all AHPC participants and commenters - it very fun to share all of this with you, and your encouragement, as well as your work on your own projects, has been a great inspiration. 

In terms of points, there are 43 foot castings and one mounted casting, all in 10mm, which should equal 45 points...at least I think it does...there is a reason I am not trusted for mathematical tasks...anyway, thanks for reading, and stay sane out there! Now I must turn my brushes toward some "Bavarian Content"....stay tuned...

From Gary Amos: AB Prussians (16x2pts, 1x4pts = 36 pts)

After much delay and buggeration, I've attached the latest unit for the Challenge. It's 1^st Battalion, Prussian IR11 Schoning, comprising 16 foot figures and 1 mounted figure (haven't counted the cannon ball).

Big delays for a variety of reasons, but this unit entailed some messing around as it's a scratch outfit built from figures which were part of another project which I swerved and, unusually for me, I didn't have enough to make a tlddly little battalion. So, being on the parsimonious side, I've gathered together odds and sods and donated a cannon ball ;O). The unit will form part of the advance guard of the division when it gets to the table, which doesn't reflect any actual structure used at the time, but will be useful in a game.

Anyway, here are the two surviving photos (yes, I'm that bad at photography):

 Well, as some people wanted more photos, I've added a few:

 

 

GrahameH. 15mm German Units of the Franco-Prussian War

Having finished my 15mm 1866 Austrian Army I decided to finish off the last of my German Army for the Franco-Prussian War.

All the figures are 15mm from Essex. 

First up are three Bavarian Infantry Battalions. Each of 32 figures and a unit of 9 Jägers.

That’s 210pts for the 105 figures

Keeping with the Bavarians, next up are some Light Cavalry. 

18 mounted figures that 72 pts

Next 18 (72pts) Barvian Curassiers 

Next some generals. Three Prussian General (24pts)

Now some Prussian Cavalry. Two Prussian Hussar Regiments

Finally a unit of Prussian Currasseirs

So for those three cavalry units, each of 18 mounted figures is 216pts.

I think that it for the moment for the nineteenth century, although I am a few Generals short. Not too sure what to do next, I’ll have to look at the lead mountain.

Oh total points (618pts) I think.