SteveA: 10mm Black Powder Epic, American Civil War Union Cavalry (45 points)

My final submission for this year's grand AHPC, is 3 stands of American Civil War Union Cavalry for Black Powder Epic.  

I had originally thought to pivot to something from my 28mm mini to do queue to meet my 500 point objective, but the clock was ticking out the last minutes before the submission gates slam shut, and I already had the relevant colour paints at the ready after my previous submission and these were already on my paint desk!

It amuses me a bit to think it is somewhat analogous to rush a paint job of tiny men on horsebacks for a photo finish to get me over my points objective finish line.  The end of this year's AHPC served as a good dead line for a focused GEMO (good enough, move on) effort to just get it done at table top quality, to avoid the paint puttering I often indulge in that ultimately rarely much improves the end result.

 

I again enjoyed joining in this year's challenge, I think this is the first time I actually hit my target points total, so I'm also feeling pretty good about that.

Well done and congratulations everyone for advancing you hobby goals and rescuing many a mini from the purgatory of the unpainted!  I appreciate the inspirations I have gained from viewing the photos of your productions yielded from the practicing of  your collective painting prowess, and I hope to be so fortunate as to again put brushes to purpose with you all next year!

45 Points  = 15  x 3pts 10mm Mounted Figure 

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Great work here Steve, even if you say they are rushed they are great tabletop quality especially for 10mm figures.  I think you had an alternate reason to post these though, to help rub it in that your buddy Byron didn't get off his ass to paint all his ACW stuff like he was supposed to this challenge.  Consider me suitably shamed by your painting efforts with your ACW stuff this challenge.  Great work and 45 points added to your total!

 

 - Byron 

From SteveA: 10mm Black Powder Epic, American Civil War Union Army (142 points)

 This here is my penultimate post for this year's AHPC!  ( I have ~28 pts left to squeeze into the remaining hours of "free fire" submissions to meet my target total)  I have painted here a Large  Regiment comprised  of 7 Stands of Musket Rifle Infantry, and a mounted commander, flagged as "5th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment".

This submission combined with my other submission for 10mm minis Black Powder Epic Battles - the American Civil War for this year's challenge, I think furnishes me with a playable force more quickly (at an Army level) than many of my past transitions from "Hey that's cool, I'm buying it!" to " Slay The Grey, I've painted it!"

I think I improved upon my previous effort in terms of less time for same result, using a more effective colour application order and some thought towards what important bits to actually paint vs what nonsense bits to avoid, but I feel I'm likely still puttering about with some less than essential steps than needed at a 10mm scale.  I may be too fixated with doing all painting steps with all my zoom-in eye goggling lenses holding the minis about 4 inches from my nose, and in future will aim to rely more on a look at it at arms length while standing over mini on a table top to determine when good enough to be done.

Overall, I am rather pleased with how this regiment looks as part of the total force I have prepared thus far, and I am looking forwards to painting up the remaining minis for this army that I have awaiting in my pile of back logged minis.

Good luck to everyone bringing in your target points for a landing to close out AHPC XVI!

142 Points

140 pts = 7 stands of 20  Rifle Infantry, 10mm Foot figure  1 pts each 

    2 pts  = 10mm Mounted commander figure

Great unit of Federals Steve, and a stonking big one too.  They look great.  Looking forward to seeing you squeeze out your target.  Peterd

From TomL: BattleTech Steiner Strikers & 19th VI (142 points)

First up is another Battletech unit.  These are painting in the Steiner Striker colors - red with an inverted triangle in white. 

These were 3D printed to plug the gap in a friends Catalyst KS collection.  Some of the details were a touch shallow so I did a black wash over the base red followed by a red & slightly orange highlight. The inverted triangle areas were painted grey, then white with a final contrast basilicom grey to add some depth.

Finally got a chance to finish one of the ACW CSA units I started while on vacation. This is the 19th Virginia:

 

As before, the base colors are done with contrast paints, details and highlights used Vallejo & TTC acrylics with a final coat of Vallejo Game wash.  

Score:140
4 28mm figures @ 5 for 20 points.

60 epic figures @ 2 for 120 points. 

4 points for the Stompy robots of death duel.

 

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Sylvain: You are consistent and productive. I have seen your robots and your ACW many times already and can only reiterate how impressed I am with the attention to details and the look on the table. I will add two points for the flags. Extraordinaire! 

 

From Curt - Thirty Years War Bohemian Pike & Shotte (168 Points)

During my last visit to Greg's he showed me his Thirty Years War efforts from Warlord Games' 'Epic' range. As typical, his painting was fabulous, and they really looked the business all ranked up with an impressive hedge of pikes. I was so impressed by them that I wanted to give them a go myself as I was looking for any excuse to collect pike & shotte for this period. As Greg had already started in with the Imperialists, I suggested I give the Protestants a go, starting with the ill-fated Bohemians from the beginnings of the conflict.

I managed to find one of the all-in starter box sets on deep-discount, and so here are my first efforts with an infantry pike & shotte 'frame' from the range.

I like how shoulder-to-shoulder the troops are designed for each strip. I find this makes the painting of them a little easier. That being said, I thought it odd that the front rank of the pike figures are designed with a 45 degree action pose, whereas the shotte has been designed in marching, or at-rest attitudes. 

Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I started pillaging the commanded shotte portion of the frames (which are posed as loading and firing) in order to make the handgunners a little more dynamic, and thereby blending better with their active, pike-armed comrades. As this process was a little fiddly, I'll probably do this just for a few units, maybe to denote veteran status.  

I primed the strips dark brown and then drybrushed them light grey and finally white to help the Contrast paints to do their thing. I then went in with a small brush to pull-out some details and add further highlights. Similar to my other small-scale projects I only paint details on the front rank, keeping the following ranks fairly minimal from the shoulders down. I figure, there's no point painting stuff that nobody sees. I like the more desaturated look to the figures, but we'll see how the process holds up when I get more done down the road. I think I'll want around 10 of these units to make a creditable force.

As to basing, I wanted something a bit more flexible to work with different rulesets.  Warlord has their own 'Pike & Shotte' rules, which are a descendant of Rick Priestly's venerable but still excellent 'Warmaster' system. Those rules have each unit made up of four bases, allowing for various formations to be reflected depending on their arrangement. 

While this is great, our group also enjoys the 'Too the Strongest' rules (the 'For King and Parliament' variant for this period) where we've been having fun making-up single bases to depict units, allowing us to make mini-dioramas to add colour. We also have found that the single-base approach also makes gameplay a little faster, being as players only have to move one thing as opposed to several bits for a unit. Horses for Courses!

Anyhoo, as the bases that come with the box are plastic, I contacted Precision Wargame Supplies to have them cut me steel bases as replacements. I did this as I like the added weight that the steel bases provide, and they also allow me to use magnets (without messing up the polarity) for the large sabot basing I had in mind for the large single bases.

This led me to contact our friendly terrain Minion Byron (also of Northern Lights Terrain) to have him cut me a few bespoke sabot bases as a proof of concept. These sabot bases are 190 x 60, with cutouts for 3mm magnets to keep the steel-shod figures in place. I also put in a cutout for a unit label. I still have a few tweaks I want to do, but I think these will serve nicely.  

One thing about the scale of these figures. They call them 'Epic', intoning that they are around 10-12mm, like their earlier efforts, but these are actually true 15mm (foot to eye). So, with that being the case there are 80 foot figures in this formation, plus two mounted officers, which should put total points to 168. If our minion is good with this then we'll need to update Greg's previous work on these to bring his into alignment (I can do that). :) Also, this will allow me to hit my points target and also give me another Squirrel Point for the roster.

Thanks Dallas for letting me roll with the Thursday crew!

- Curt

This is indeed a Bohemian Rhapsody Curt! The Warlord Epic stuff is so great and your brushwork really makes it come alive. I like the conversions you've done to make the "shotte" a bit more dynamic too. I'm not surprised that Greg's been able to suck you into a new scale and period, he's very good at that isn't he... 

That's 168 for your tally!

Dallas

From TomL: ACW 9th Georgia CSA Infantry Regiment (120 points)

Taking a break from the BattleTech figures as I finally finished another ACW unit.  When building my forces I look for units that fought in the more famous battles I am likely to recreate. This is the 9th Georgia Infantry Regiment. At one point it had 10 companies and saw fairly continuous action from 1862 through the end of 1864.  Most CSA units did not carry state flags in battle but the Warlord Epic stands have two flag bearers so I include the state flag. In theory it helps to identify the unit on the table, assuming you can read these flags at this scale.

 

The base colors were done with contrast paints, details and highlights used Vallejo & TTC acrylics with a final coat of Vallejo Game wash.  

Points are 60 epic figures @ 2 for 120 points.

 

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From DaveD Sylvain: Another lovely unit. You produce them like Picasso churning up art work. I like how you varied the pants and the hats, showing discrepancies in uniform. Bravo!

From SteveA - 10mm Black Powder Epic, American Civil War Union Army (180 Points)

Hello again!    This here is my first submission for AHPC XVI, and the first miniatures I have ever painted for Black Powder Epic Battles and/or the American Civil War.     Last year I tried my first game of Warlords Black Powder at at local Wargaming Event (Friendly Fire) whereupon I was hooked on the game,  and thereafter quickly purchased and split a starter box with ByronM, with myself pledging to paint up a fighting force for the Union.

I started these minis  during the first week of this year's challenge, finding time to dip my brushes in paint between the various family and seasonal events I was mired in enjoying this past few weeks.  

This effort was also a learning experience for me to sort out some efficiencies for how to better batch paint 10mm Union forces as I of course have many more units to address with the olde brush'n paint pot. Also, I'm trying to be mindful of newbie historical gamer  blunders for painting uniform colors in the wrong places or missing significant unit colors. So hopefully I brushed up some respectful pigments to field these here:  3 stands for 115th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 5 stands of 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 3 stands of Union artillery.

Hopefully my future painting efforts for the Union can be accomplished a bit more swiftly with a smarter order for color application with fewer follow-up fixes, so I can complete the force this year as well as mix in the painting of the many many other mini diversions that have bewitched my attentions.  Nonetheless, I am pleased with this here first effort and happy that I now have some American Civil War Historical minis included in my cabinets of done and game ready minis.

175 Points (actuall you have 180 points here)

103 points =  5 stands of 10  Rifle Infantry x 10mm Foot figure 1pts each  + Mounted Commander 3pts

  63 points =  3 stands of 10 Rifle Infantry x 10 mm Foot Figure  1pts each   + Mounted Commander 3 pts

    9 points = 3 stands Artillery with crew  x 3 pts each

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Hi Steve - GregB here filling for Dallas today while he is away. These guys look great! ACW is a period I have always been keen to try and game, and this scale is ideal for the spectacle on the table. I have tried myself to make something of the Warlord "Epic" ACW figures, and just can't get it to work...but what do I know? You look have nailed it here - these look great. Nice mass to the packed formations. 

Your post makes reference to the possibilities of mistakes when attempting historical subjects. Well, I have a secret to share: we all make the mistakes, and just...who cares. While one should not be as glib toward these matters as current-period Ridley Scott, the effort is what matters, you've made more than a proper effort here. Plus it looks great. 

Just power through it, and respectful hobbyists will make suggestions where appropriate. For my part, I can see red stripes on the legs of the artillery crew, so I think you are already nailing it :) 

That's 180 points according to the magic of Miles' spreadsheet. Keep it going!

GregB

From TomL: Epic ACW Iron Brigade (207 points)

Running behind my original rather optimistic painting schedule but I did manage to finish my first ACW unit - The 19th Indiana Volunteer Regiment. These are Warlord Epic resin Iron Brigade figures.  

The command strip is a bit wonky as the flag bearers are on a separate sprue and are slightly larger. I cut the strip into 3 sections to line up the flag bearers. The figures have a lot of sculpted detail. Had to break out the Optivisor (with the newly attached LED lighting Christmas present) to pick out the details I did paint.

The single 28mm figure is a 3D print a friend asked me to paint up for our Alien RPG campaign.  His inspiration for this character is a middle aged, midlife crisis Johnny Bravo, grinding away as your average ship’s mechanic. 

 

I used a mixture of various manufacturers acrylic, GW contrast and washes.  Quite a few stompy robots on the painting table but nothing finished in time for this week. 

Points: 205
1x 28mm  for 5 points
100x Epic 15mm at 2 points for 200 points.

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Sylvain: Your ranks of ACW soldiers look deceptively simple, but I shiver at the thought of painting all these figurines one by one, but you did it and did a great job of it. I will add 2 points for the flags. I also like the disgruntled look of "Johnny", your typical sci-fi blue collar. Joli travail!

 

 

 

  

TomL Pulp Robots and Epic ACW (210 points)

My final post of free fire.  While waiting for various stages of the ACW units basing to dry, I painted these Pulp Robot minions from Bombshell Miniatures.

These comically menacing robots remind me of the Buzz Lightyear villain.  Painted with Vallejo Metallics Aluminum, Tamiya Clear paints with a few washes.  The final infantry regiment for my ACW challenge is the 7th NJ.

 

I went back and added the unit name from the Warlord flag sheet to the bottom of all of the flag stands as it's practically impossible to tell the unit flags apart at this scale. 

These were not quite as clean a sculpt as the infantry plus painting horses takes me forever but at least I finished one of my two cavalry units.  Painted with a mix of contrast and normal acrylic paints as before.

Final points: 210

2 28mm figures * 5: 10
60 epic figures * 2 :  120
20 epic cavalry * 4 :  80
 

As I said before, thanks to everyone for all the hard work and effort to support the challenge and to all the participants for the excellent entries.  My morning coffee will be quite boring going forward.

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Congratulations on completing your Challenge Tom - you've certainly pumped out a lot of your ACW troops and I'm looking forward to seeing them all arrayed in your wrap-up post!

- Paul

TomL, ACW, the Wise and Faithful (Points: 180)

Returning to my ACW project on the Unions side, I decided to try another variation of the base contrast colours. The Ultramarine was a touch too light (saved by the wash) but Pylar Glacial has horrible coverage with a single pass. I can see how this will be useful for a cold shade or a winter base but I returned to Briar Chill during the first base.  Anyway, here is the 5th NJ:

 

 

Continuing on in Paradise we visit the Fourth Sphere: The Wise. Here contemplative, sage, scholarly types contemplate reality, heaven & hell and how to correctly spell "Orc".  

 

This Scholarly version of JRRT was from Boarshead miniatures. Painted in Foundry acrylics and GW washes. My attempt at a vaguely green herringbone using washes was not very successful. Ah well. The pilgrimage through Paradise continues on to the Fifth Sphere: Warriors of Faith.

Father Pious, Brother Repentant and Reverend Alms

These Footsore Miniatures were painted with all Foundry Acrylics. Picture background are from Jon Hodgson's backdrop painting books.

Points for this week: 180

60 Union ACW 15mm figures @ 2 = 120

4 28MM figures @ 5 = 20

Wise & warriors of the Faith = 40

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Your union troops look quite the business Tom, and the army is looking great! 

Footsore do make some lovely models don't they! always nice to see them painted up. And the Brother Repentant resonates with all the Minions at this end of the Challenge! :-)

- Paul

From Mike W: 28mm Arthurian Horse and Epic 15mm Carthaginian Horse (170 Points)

 At last I have got all my outstanding Arthurian cavalry completed! This week I have finished off 9 x 28mm horsemen, to join the other guys I completed earlier in the challenge. Next week I hope to get the outstanding foot figures completed as well.

9 x 28mm Gripping Beast Cavalrymen

My painting technique was the same as previous figures for this period, so I will not repeat myself here, 3 of these figures are on armoured horses whilst the rest are on their unarmoured counterparts. As before all these figures are Gripping Beast and I purchased myself a box of Late Roman Heavy Cavalry and Goth Elite Cavalry, in both boxes the torsos are exactly the same moulds, I have just Anglo-Romanised the Goths with head and shield swaps.

Another view of the mounted men in line...

... and from the other side, better showing shield art!

This time around I had planned to give the armoured guys red shields and the others predominantly white shields, however as I was basing these up I realised that I'd accidently applied one of  the red shield patterns to an unarmoured horseman and a corresponding white one to one of the armoured figures! Oh well, I'll just have to get some more figures, to even up the numbers again....

Close-up of three of the little guys, with the accidental red shield on the left!

The three fully armoured cavalrymen, again with accidental white shield on the left!

The unshielded side of the above mounted men

Last three mounted figures, all witht he right shield art!

Final shot of the 28mm horsemen

Continuing the Cavalry theme but going down in scale, I have also completed the outstanding Warlord Epic 15mm Carthaginians that I ran out of time for last week - namely 10 Lybian Heavy Cavalry on two stands accompanied by 10 x Spanish Cavalry on another two bases.

The completed 15mm cavalry bases.

As above but with the rear rank to the front

Again the painting method has been outlined in previous post, this brings my immediate splurge on this Carthaginian Army to a close - apart form when I can source some Celts and some Elephants!

The Lybian Heavy Cavalry bases

The Spanish Cavalry bases.

POINTS

9 x 28mm Arthurian Horse @ 10 Pts ea         90 Points

20 x 15mm Carthaginian Horse @ 4 Pts ea    80 Points

TOTAL                                                            170 Points

Very nice again, Mike! I always love your Arthurian figures, and these look great. The Epic figures are a good unit too, I hope to see a picture of all your epic miniatures together sometime! Nothing wrong with your calculations, so 170 points will be added to your total. Good job!

Martijn