From MilesR: Submission 3 - More 10mm Madness (490 Points)

 Well it's time for another long and rambling post about my journeys through the solar system.  Here's a shocker, it's still mostly 10mm stuff.

Let's first return to the outer ring and visit the last planet I need to check off - Planet Vulcan.  Pointy-Eared ehs?  Well how about a unit of Elven archers mounted on Mooses and based for Warmaster sound?  Elves on Mooses?  These must be Canadian elves.

The figures are from Magister Militum and while riding a moose is very whimsical, the figures themselves are pretty awful and I really don't recommend them.  Well at least they are the start of a 10mm Warmaster army but I think the rest will be 3D printed.

Planet Vulcan is 20 points and 9 10mm cavalry brings the the to 38 points

With the outer ring now complete, it is now time to return to the second ring and resume our trek.  First up is the planet Pelandra and its Oceanic theme.  Hmm what might fight an oceanic theme? 1/600 scale ironclads and in this case 5 of them:

There are 2 French Ironclads (the grey ones at the bottom of the pictures - The Couronne and Algesiras.

to accompany the french ships there are 3 ocean going British Ironclads - the HMS Minotaur (the long one in the middle), HMS Achilles and HMS Royal Oak.

All of these models are 1/600 scale and are 3d prints.  I commissioned the files via Patrick who runs a business called East Coast Ironclads and provides a very wide range of Civil War and now more stl files.  His work is superb and I highly recommend him.

The sharp eyed and critical amongst you may say - hey these ships are rigged.  You're right.  I ordered some etched brass ratlines which have yet to arrive.  I will rectify the rigging situation ones the supply chain gods smile upon my pending ratline order.  Please accept my most sincere apologies. 

Last time we counted theses as the equivalent of 28mm vehicles (20 points each) so 5 nests 100 points and 20 more for the planet.

The next planet to visit on this excursion is Arrakis and requires a tribute in desert form - how about some Bedouin mounted arches and light cavalry for the Manzikert project 

15 bases of Turkish/Arab cavalry

6 Bases of generic Seljuk medium cavalry, armored in Mail with short lances

5 bases of Bedouin Light cavalry with javelins

4 bases of bedouin mounted archers.

15 bases, with 4 figures each totals 60 mounted figures or 120 points.  Add the planet in and we get to 140.

The next plant on todays hit parade will be Corsucant, which requires an imperial theme.  Nothing feels more Imperial to me than some more Byzantine  Bucellarii and Cataphracts:

7 bases of Bucellarii - heavy mounted archers.  

3 bases of Cataphracts.  Both the Bucellarii and Cataphracts are 10mm Pendrakken figures and are a lot of fun to paint.

That's a total of 43 Byzantine heavy cav for 86 points plus another 20 for the planet, which totals 106 points.

While not related to a specific "planet", I did paint up 3 bases of Gnolls for my growing 10mm scale Warmaster Orc army.

These are Magister Militum figures and are pretty chonky boys coming in at 17mm high each.  I'll be using them as a heavy infantry options.  there are 15 of these gentlemen and I suggest scoring them as 15's so thats 30 points.

With Corsucant now checked of the lists, I've got 5 second ring planets so should now be able to move into the center ring.  The planet will be Krypton and its Super hero submission will be none other than the Seljuk leader Alp Arslan:

It's just a command stand, but Alp Arslan is depicted in the white funeral shroud he donned the day of the battle

Alp's base has 4 foot and 1 mounted figure for a grand total of 6 points plus 20 for the planet.

The total for today's submission is:

Vulcan (Canadian Elf mtd Archers) 38 points

Perelandra (5 ironclads)    120 points

Arrakis (Turk Cav) 140 points

Gnolls 30 points

Corsucant (Byzantine Heavies) 106 points

Krypton (Alp Arslan) 26 points

Total: 490 points

The progress to date, I've just about down with what  needs to be painted for the Manzikert game - perhaps another 10-12 mounted Seljuk bases and and a few more Byzantine heavy Infantry.

You might see a lot of 3mm ww2 stuff and some terrain next submission.

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We've not heard much from you during the Challenge, Miles, so it's good to know that you're still beavering away with your projects.  Another whistle-stop tour of the planets, excellent... Love the Canadian moose cavalry. Otherwise there's so much to take in here, so I'll simply say, great work on this horde of models, Miles!

- Curt

From MilesR: A World Wind Tour of the Galaxy (932 Points)

 

OK, its been awhile since I made a post for Challenge XII.  In fact this is just my second post.  I could hide behind the excuse of complications from my knee replacement surgery, which is true but dealt with.  The real culprit is the gentlemen in the picture, Impawator Augustus the First, who demands attention and is a lot of fun to play with - who am I to deny the Impawator his wishes.

Anyway, I have been at the painting bench when both my knee and Gus allow and some progress has been made.  I'm also not unaware of the "Quadrant Challenge" and hope this post puts me back on the path of the pious as we visit a "few" planets.  Few as in more than 1 or 10.

Buckle up baby, this is going to be a long post.  I'm working on 2 big projects during this Challenge.  The first, Manzikert, was revealed in my last post with about 1/3rd of the Byzantines painted up.  This post will see about 1/3rd of their Seljuk opponents, all in glorious 10mm scale.  Have you heard of our lord and savior, 10mm scale?  Please let me help you on your path to righteous.

I present to you 1/3rd of Alp Arslan Seljuk's from Mazikert.  All of these figures are 10mm Magister Militum figures and are great figures.

The first Seljuk contingent comes to us by way of the planet CAPRICA and are mounted archers - just the perfect tool for executing a wiley ambush.  These troops might be Seljuks, they could be Pecheneg or Cuman mercenaries - it's kind of hard to tell.  All I know is that they do run circles around slow moving Cataphracts.

Next up are some more heavily armored Medium Cavalry.  These were typically also armed with bows and proved to be very flexible on the battle field.

The last Seljuk cavalry contingent are the heavies - one unit of Persian cataphracts in the front and 2 units of Faris household cavalry.

Finally some infantry.  The actual accounts for Mazikert are unclear if Alp Arslan had any infantry there but as this army will be used for other battles (can anyone say Crusades?) painting up some medium infantry and arab archers is never a bad idea.

Some extra command stands with pretty banners in the back.

Well it's time to move on from CAPRICA and onto the DEATH STAR (Planet count 2), where we can visit a ship of very questionable design - the USS Dunderberg / French Romchabeau.

This is a 1/600 scale model of this ill-fated ship that I 3D printed.  The files are from a company called East Coast Ironclads.

The Dunderberg was laid down in 1862 as a ocean going Ironclad but due to both design flaws and resources was not completed until after the civil war was over.

She was then bought by Napoleon III and patrolled the North Sea during the Franco Prussian War.  Her war cruise was cut short when the French admiralty ordered her to port so her crew could be sent to defend Paris.  I think she is a neat looking ship and you nay see some more British and French Ironclads in 1/600 scale over the course of this Challenge.  This is a big model at over 7 inches long.  I suggest scoring her like a 28mm vehicle for 20 points but leave that up to the discretion of my minion, Curt.

Next on our little sojourn through the stars is SKARA (Planet Count 3), where we meet up with some rather strange Dr's in the form of 2 10mm Orc Shaman and their assistants, all based up for Warmaster.

There will be some other Orc minis in this post which are test paints for my planned ORC Warmaster army in glorious 10mm scale.  Is this the other big project I spoke about earlier?  Nope just a bit of diversion before diving back into Mazikert.  All of the Orc figures are from Magister Millitum.

As we bid farewell to SKARA (dont drink the potions the Orcs gave you) we now travel onto the dark and forboding world of KLENDATHU (Planet Count 4),   The planets topic of "Invasion gone bad" is best represented by this Marine Battalion from the battle of Peleliu in teeny tiny 3mm scale using Pico Miniatures.  The Marines and their LVTP's are on the right (just wait a bit about the other guys).  Is this the other big project?  Yes it is - I'm working on staging the battle of Peleliu with each base being a company - hopefully it will be ready to play at Fall-in this coming November.

Next door to Klendathu, is the much more welcoming planet of GLORANTHA (Planet Count 5), Whose theme of hero is best represented by this ORC hero riding a Yak in stunning and majestic 10mm scale.

Yes, that's right, Nothing says hero more than riding a damn Yak into battle.  This Orc may not be all that smart, but man does he have some style.

Let's move on from Glorantha and onto the neighboring ISTAVAN V (Planet Count 6), and the very definition of loyalty at Manzikert - the Varangian Guard who never deserted the emperor despite a hopeless situation.  I've finished five bases and will need another 3 but ran out of Vikings.  Don't worry, more have been ordered. 

The next planet in out little journey is BABYLON V (Planet Count 7).  Hey wait a minute, you've seen this picture before!  Yeas you have but we really didn't discuss the Japanese battalion with some artillery and adorable Ha-Go tanks.  

3mm is becoming the go-to scale at the club for ww2 as as you can field entire divisions and corps for a very limited investment of both capital and time.  In fact, it the the very definition of high quality but LOW BUDGET FUN.  

Next in the planet rotation is Vulcan, but I don't have anything ready for that so lets go the other way around.

On the Other side of Caprica is ARDA (Planet Count 8), which is oftern referred to the Middle Earth of the galaxy given its Tolkenian theme.  What better fits a Tolkien themed than some more 10mm scale Orcs?  Really nothing.  There are some misc command stands and a single 24 figure Orc regiment.

Our last stop in the outer ring is SOLARIS (Planet Count 9) and it's an illusionary theme we're going for.  By the time of the Battle of Manzikert, imperial neglect and mismanagement had rendered the once imposing Tagmata or regular portion of the Byzantine army a hollow shell, as represented by this Tagmata regiment of fully armored cataphracts.  While fearsome in look and reputation, the moral and staying power of these formations was very poor, as the emperor discovered to his shock on that fateful day.

These figures are 10mm Pendrakken ones, which I like better than the Magister Millitum counter parts.

Well we seem to have flown by every planet in the outer ring, surely this insufferable post must be drawing to a close. Nope, suck it up, theres more.

Lets go the the secondary ring and visit the planet LV 426 (Planet Count 10).  It might be a really bad idea to do so, but I don't care.  You know what would have been a really bad idea - a British Intervention in the US Civil War as represented by this British Intervention Force in 6mm (Baccus figures).

These figures are based where 1 stand equals 1 brigade and will be used with the Altar of Freedom ruleset for a campaign I will be running up at the club.

It's super silly campaign idea but should be a lot of fun!

You know what's next door to LV 426? NOEL's COMET (Planet Count 11) and this will be our final stop for this post.  I know we all miss noel and this theme of friendship is a wonderful one.  I built this 28mm scale Spanish Villa for a friend who is getting into Napoleonic skirmish gaming

The Sarissa precision kit is very nice but I tarted it up a bit by adding texture to all the walls and little bit of ground foam.

and the doors open!

The ivy is some old HO-scale ivy I had hanging around the shop.

Well that's it for this post - its a bit of a handful to score but I'll try to summarize below

11 Planets: 220 Points

10mm Seljuk Turks

- 116 Mounted @ 2 pts/each = 232

- 133 foot @ 1 pt/each = 138

10mm Byzantines

- 15 Armored Cataphracts = 30 

- 42 Varangian Guards = 42

10mm Orcs

 - 4 mounted = 8

 - 42 foot = 42

1/600 Scale Ironclad

- Dunderberg / Rochambeau = 20 points ?

6mm British Intervention Force 

- 36 mounted figures = 36 points

- 156 infantry figures @0.5/each = 78

- 4 Artillery Guns + crew = 12

Villa

Overall dimensions 4"x 14" x 12" = 672 cubic inches, 216 per scoring cube so that is 3.1 or 60 points, lets round that down to 50 points

3mm ww2 

13 15x40mm bases, current scoring is 12 points for a 60x30mm base.  3 15x40 bases fit within 60x30 so that would equate to 4 60x30 bases or 48 points - that feels really high so lets cut that in half and go with 24 points

Grand Total: 932 points

It feels good to have another submission and finally knock a little of the rust off the painting machine.  I think the next few weeks might be even more productive - well assuming the Impawator concurs.

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Okaaay, wow. That is a heap of stuff. Great work Miles.

- Curt

AdamC: Caprica CSS Arkansas (28 Points)

My first entry of this challenger is the "Doomed" Ironclad CSS Arkansas.  

She was started in Memphis but was incomplete at the time of Naval Battle of Memphis she was moved to the Yazoo River where she was completed in makeshift naval facilities. She was painted brown to help her hide along the Yazoo and Mississippi river banks.  

From the start her engine gave her trouble, though this didn't seem to hold her back at first.   She successfully defended herself in her first battle against 2 Union Gun Boats and the Ram Queen of the West Causing damage damage to all three, and taking some hits herself.   She then managed to slip through Admiral Farragut and the ships north of Vicksburg firing at all points. She did considerable damage to Farragut's fleet and the Admirals pride.  She took some damager her self including some engine damage. 

She attempted to attack union motors ships bombarding Vicksburg but her engines failed and she had to fight off a counter attack by Farragut Fleet.  Farragut withdrew from Vicksburg. Captain Brown of the Arkansas tried to repair his ships engines. She then attempted to assist the Confederate counter attack on Baton Rouge but she ran aground, and her engine broke as she got her self off and she ran aground again doomed in the face of the Union advance, she was scuttled and her final resting place a is under a Mississippi levy.  She had a short but eventful career, one ship against two Union fleets, she was doomed from the start much like the Confederacy itself. 

The miniature is 3D print done by my friend Arofan (3D printers are like dogs the best ones are owned by friends), I believe East Coast Ironclads did the file.  The intention was for her to be about 10mm scale to work (with some forced perspective) with 15mm troops she is 10 inches long, a shade under 2.25 inches in the beam and a smidge over 1 inch high (not counting her stack).  

I will call her a 15mm Vehicle for 8 points. 

Points 20 for Caprica. 

___________________________________

Welcome back to the Challenge Adam!

What a great mini and an apropos continuation of your work last year. I worked at an ACW museum in Mississippi in my salad days, and remember doing research on the CSS Arkansas for a larger project. What a colourful yet brutal history. May she have better luck in your upcoming games!

- Curt

From PeterD 1/2400 Scale War of the Pacific Ironclads (12 points)

Peruvians in front, Chileans in the background.  It turned out that only one shot of the Peruvian squadron  on its own came out, but my group shots have the Peruvians in the fore.

To follow on from an earlier post I have 4 of the major warships from the War of the Pacific fought between Chile and Peru from 1879-1884.  Back in the earlier 80s the Yaquinto board game "Ironclads" described it as a "Chilean-Peruvian Banana War", which is surely a misnomer as it was fought over the Atacama Desert where very little grows and certainly not bananas.  The key resource at stake was actually nitrate deposits from guano deposits at the large sea bird nesting sites,  yep....it was a war fought over bird sh*t.  Actually this war is also known as the Saltpetre War but 10 years earlier peru and Chile had allied  against Spain was in the Guano War.

Independencia leads Union

In addition to the Huáscar from my earlier post, back from the Peruvian fleet included these two vessels the Ironclad frigate Independencia and the unarmored corvette Union plus other oddities on the work bench.  

Independencia was armed with big rifles on pivots bow (8") and stern (7") plus 6" rifles on the broadside.  She was the Peruvian navies second most important ship after the Huascar but was written off after running aground in the war's first action.   Union was an unarmoured corvette packing a useful armament.  

Spot the doofus moment.  Note how the Blanco Encalada has more smoke and a flag.  I decided that I needed to fix this!

On the Chilean side of things we have the two central battery ironclad sisters Almirante Cochrane and Blanco Encalada built in the UK and completed just three years before the war began. They were named for naval heroes from the Chilean War of Independence, Cochrane of course being the Scot who was the inspiration for Horatio Hornblower.  They packed a punch of 9" rifles and feature the angled gun ports to give wider arcs of fire.  Cochrane survived until 1934 but her sister ship was torpedoed by the torpedo gunboat Almirante Lynch in the Chilean civil war of 1891 and was one of the first casualties of Mr Whitehead's invention.

Coinage added to give idea of scale.  Canadian quarter at the bow, loonie at the stern.

These are all Tumbling Dice 1/2400 model, and again I'm very pleased with these casting.  The Cochrane class come packaged in a pair, as do Huáscar  and Independencia.  Tumbling dice don't make specific models for the unarmored ships so I've used more generic models for these, including Union and HMS Amethyst. 

Look carefully, I've fixed the smoke on Blanco Encalada and took her flag off int he process.  Easily fixed however.

I seem to be following trends this Challenge as 19th century South American wars are on an upswing.  The Perry's released figures for a slightly earlier war across the Andes and there's a recently published set of rules for the land operations of the War of the Pacific.

These TD models have been scored at 3pts a pop, so that's a whopping 12 points for me.

Good things come in small packages. These are great, also 2nd best name for a war ever after the war of jenkin's ear.

From PeterD Naval Battle at Pacocha 1877 (11 Points)

The original action 1877

Recreated in 2020

I continue to tick along at a snail's pace on my challenge, and have here the three participants from the Battle of Pacocha in 1877.  These are 1/2400 scale ships from Tumbling Dice from their Victorian Era range.

First up is the instigator the Peruvian turret ship Huascar.  The Huascar was seized by rebels in the wrong side in a failed coup by the former finance minister (and future Peruvian President) Pierola.  With the coup defeated on land Huascar took to piracy and boarded some British flagged ships, triggering a Royal Navy response.

Note that the model shows Huascar cleared for action with bulwarks lowered to allow the turret to fire and thus showing the white interior. 

The Huascar was built by Laird's in the UK in 1866, she has armour of up to 7.5" and carried two 10" rifles in her turret plus a couple of smaller guns.   I used the present tense intentionally as she is still afloat as a museum ship in Valparaiso Chile, one of a few ships afloat from the Victorian era.  Her full history is impressive.  Built to fight the Spanish in the Island War she got to Peru during the war but didn't see action.  After fighting the Royal Navy she surrendered to the Peruvian government and served in the War of the Pacific against Chile.  Captured by the Chileans after a heroic action, they refitted her and used her against the Peruvians.  Finally she was involved in the Chilean Civil War of 1891. 

A famous ship with a proud history under two navies flags.

Britain's Imperial might c 1877

The predictable RN response came from the Pacific Station based in Esquimaux, British Columbia.  Rear Admiral de Horsey's flagship was the iron frigate HMS Shah.  Shah was big, fast and well armed but unarmoured.  She carried 9" rifled swivel guns fore and aft and a broadside of 7" rifles.  She also carried early Whitehead torpedoes and fired one at the Huascar, which outran it!  She proved expensive to run and this was her sole commission, although her iron masts can be seen on HMS Victory, having replaced the more fragile wooden originals.

I rigged the Amethyst as a barque.  It turns out that she was ship rigged in 1877 but changed to a barque rig on her return. 

HMS Shah was accompanied by the wooden corvette HMS Amethyst, name ship of the last class of wooden cruisers built by the RN. Typical of the small cruisers the RN used to patrol imperial waterways, she was armed with 64 pounder rifles on broadside with swivels fore and aft.  She served from 1873-1887.   

The battle of Pacocha was a tactical draw but a RN strategic win.  The RN hit the Huascar multiple times but didn't have armour piercing shot so did no damage.  In return, the Huascar was undermanned and fired slowly and badly causing only splinter damage to Shah's rigging.  The Huascar did avoid the Shah's torpedo, hampered the RN attack by staying in the shallows where the Shah couldn't go and avoided an attack by torpedo launches the next day.  However, the crew gave up the piracy gig and surrendered to the government 2 days later.

I added black funnel smoke from cotton batting soaked in black paint.  This took me back to my University days of carving 1/1200 scale pre-dreadnoughts out of balsa.

If you're are keeping score this is my second project using 1/2400 scale ships from Tumbling Dice and I have been very pleased with their models.  They are clean cast, relatively easy to put together and paint up well.   I had intended to work on my Anglo-Dutch fleets first but their rigs proved fussier to get right so plowed ahead on the ironclads.  I don't have the skill set or patience for fiddly sail rigs in general and have suffered great heartbreaks with past efforts at modelling sailing ships in 1/1200.  So far these TD ships are much easier to rig and appear much less fragile although we'll see how they stand the test of table top battle.  I should also point out that in action, these ships would furl their sails or even strike top masts altogether to reduce clutter.  However, I couldn't resist doing them fully rigged.

I added Canadian quarters (about the same size as a 5p piece) for comparison.  I also included the correctly named Windhond!

I've got a variety of odd naval projects underway and am beginning to regret not setting up a Sandi Cheek aquatic squirrel side duel for the most naval projects!

Points wise, I think it's typically 3 points for a 1/2400 scale ship, plus what ever points the 4 flags net me.  At about 9 points a post,  my challenge will definitely be the slow boat to China.

***
The wrong side of a failed coup? Who hasn't been there, right? Right? Can you blame them for giving piracy a try?

*cough*

Some more impressive naval efforts from PeterD! I have a lot of respect for any gamer who can tackle a naval subject of any sort, in any scale, particularly one where rigging is involved! Sails look beautiful in real life, but as a hobby concept, they cause to scream and run away. So well done Peter, your two-day-pirate ride and the Royal Navy response look very nice.  In terms of points, I'll accept the notion that each of these little warships is worth three points - I'll add an additional point for flags, and one more point just out of respect for anyone who can attempt to paint these small ship models in the first place.

Better go check on my coup....

GregB