From MartinN: Sigurd - Fáfnir's Bane (17 Points)

Continuing on from last years theme I'm back, or better still painting away on my Middle Imperial Roman project for Midgard. My Romans are more or less done, so I've to do the opposition now it seems.

Last year I painted Brynhild, so I thought it only sensible to now paint Sigurd (Siegfried for us Germans). While the whole epic cycle around Sigurd probably refers to a later period than what I'm going for with my 3rd Century Romans, we don't really know and that's excuse enough for me.

The figures used are from Footsore Miniatures, Victrix and Armorum & Aquila Miniatures and go together quite well. Converting the chap mockingly holding up the severed head, was fun and indeed the reason to paint this whole little vignette. Sigurd and his banner bearer were collecting dust in my stash for over a decade already, but I couldn't think of a way to tell an interesting story with any of the figures I found. I love the defiant pose of the sculpt, so it had to be something special. And when I happened upon the Dark Age Archers set from Victrix I instantly knew I was on to something. Good thing I'll need archers anyway for this project, eh?

Points wise this will see me enter the roster with 17 points for 3 standing and a prone figure in addition to whatever points our Maximo Lider sees fit to throw in for the hand painted shields.

Cost of Entry

Since the beginning of the full scale invasion of Ukraine, I'm donating monthly to Ukrainian charity Come Back Alive Foundation who provide both lethal and non-lethal aid to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Also US based Renegade Relief Runners Foundation, who deliver aid to settlements as close and sometimes closer to the frontline as is safe(-ish), gets a monthly donation. Both do sterling work, so go and check them out.

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First, welcome back to the Challenge, Nick!

I love that you've completed the book-end to your Brynhild with this fabulous Siegfried vignette. As usual your brushwork continues to amaze, only to be outdone by your subtle conversions and additions. I find your fleshtones, fabrics and painted shields are simply incredible - a tour de force to be admired. Well done, Nick (and another 5 points I think is warranted for the work)!

Also to be credited is your donations to the two Ukrainian charities you mentioned. Those folks need all the help they can get. Very worthwhile.

- Curt

From MartinN: Burgundians... or was it Romans? (35 points)

I welcome you to my very first scheduled post this year, and yes, I'm a little bit embarrassed myself. But what should I do? I was busy with important things. Like... procrastinating?

Anyway, enough of that inane blubbering, on to the meat of the subject: Burgundians (no, not THOSE Burgundians, but those of the Nibelungen Saga) in 28mm for Midgard! Or was it Romans? A little bit of both I'd say. Knowing I'm unlikely to finish a complete force anyway I decided on adding a few Burgundian foederati to my very fledgling Middle/ Late Imperial Romans.

Midgard makes use of individually based leaders. To easily indicate the level of said heroes I decided on the number of figures per leaders base. Thus today we have Brynhild, a level 2 leader, and her hearthguard. Brynhild is from Footsore Miniatures, while her hearthguard is a converted Late Roman miniature from Victrix. Not liking the overly foldy (that's no word, isn't it?) cloak I sculpted one myself using Green Stuff and let him hold his helmet in his hand. Rather chuffed with the results I have to admit.

Next we have a base of Funditores, staff slingers, that could be Romans but could equally well be Burgundian. Instead of using the recommended 12x6 for the basing I decided on 10x5, primarily because I like the look of the narrower frontage, but equally because it saves me painting figures. For the unlikely case I'm ever fielding these in anger against someone with the bigger bases I can always add a small 2x4 base. 

Figures are Victrix again and despite the overly busy folds in the clothing, were a joy to paint. I really love the character in the faces Victrix do.

So, that's it for today. With six 28mm figures at 5 points each we have a grand total of 30 points, not taking into account any bonus points our gracious minion might deem appropriate for the conversion.

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Hello Nick! So great to have more of your wonderful brushwork to take in. But it is more than the tremendous painting (although, as usual, it is amazing) - I just love how this post checks so many of the "mental boxes" of the wargaming-hobby-brain. In no particular order we have:

- ode to procrastination (you have come to the right place, my friend)

- ode to a game system that you like, but you are unlikely to paint a complete force for, yet here you are painting more for it...

- ode to a figure maker even as we have our little nits, complete with fun term (i.e. "foldy" - I hereby proclaim that not only to be a proper word, but an appropriate one at that!)

- refusal of a stated basing system in order to revert to a personally preferred basing look (I totally sympathize!)

I love all of it! Plus you sculpted on some bits. That gets extra points in my books - so 40 points for you! I wish you well in your battles against procrastination, and we look forward to more of your stunning brushwork!

GregB

From NoelW for Thursday: A drop of Burgundy (120 points)

I had some odd Wars of the Roses foot figures lying around, oddments, really, left over from other units or acquired from Bring and Buys. Having painted some cavalry that could be used both in WoTR forces and possibly in a Burgundian Ordonnance, I decided to paint these spare infantry similarly in a blue and white livery to give similar flexibility. For Burgundians they should really have the red saltire, too, but that would remove their flexibility, as would committing them to any particular faction in the WoTR by painting on a Lord’s badges. Instead, the figures can be alighned with a particular force through standard bearers/ensigns whose flags can be changed.

The 22 figures are all Perry designs, some from their plastic sets, some metals and two of their older sculpts still, I think, being sold by Wargames Foundry, though these have been languishing in my collection for many years. Here they are:

 And here are the standard bearers.

The flags are detachable using an approach I picked up from an excellent blogger who goes by the name Olicanalad (another Yorkshireman, as it happens – we’re all full of good ideas). Each flag is wrapped around a length of plastic tube which can then be slid over a wire “pole”. His original post is here,   though he uses brass tube, which is a little more stable than my plastic, but more difficult to work with and more expensive. The main problem with this system is that flags tend to rotate around the central pole, but a little bluetak inside the tube can fix this.

Without the Burgundian flags, they look like this:

 And, if used for the Wars of the Roses, they may be given flags like these:

I assembled the Burgundian flags for this submission, but the WoTR flags had already been assembled.

Finally, there’s an Irish mercenary. He should’ve been included in the Bonus post but he’d sneaked off the painting table, concealing himself in a fold of cloth (so he says – I suspect he’d deserted for a drop of the hard stuff, as mercenaries seem apt to do), so he appears here as a unit of 1.

So that’s 23 figures at 115 points, plus perhaps a couple for the flags?

                                                     

Lovely universal soldiers and an admirable approach to flags that I have also adopted!
Great colours splendid body of men!
So,23 28mm figures will give you 115 points,

plus four flags would give you 119 but as Toby abhors odd numbers we shall round it up to 120 points!
All the best Iain