From MattT Finished Khwarazmian Army [ 90 points ]

Finishing these last two units of medium cavalry means that I have completed my Khwarazmian Army for Basic Impetus. Of course I am already thinking about other units I could add to enable me to make and play other Army Lists. 

The medium Cav are from the Gripping Beast Armies of Islam range, Flag from LBMS

Here's a couple of photos of the completed army. Medium Cav and Elephant at the rear. Light Cav screen to the front.

Always a great feeling finishing a project and I'm really happy how they came out. Bright and colourful with a strong coherent basing scheme to tie them together. Lets hope they perform on the table top.

8 x 28mm cav @ 10 points each = 80 points

Congrats on finishing this project Matt (finished project, now there's an oxymoron), the end army look just wonderful.  It's been great following your work on these Khwarazmians over the challenge.  While your new medium Cavalry are lovely, it's the finished army that really catches the eye.  Kudos on the consistently fine base work across all elements, it really ties the unit together.  I've thrown in a few points for the casework and meeting the elusive goal of a finished project.

From Matt T - Elephant Sized Hole - [ 40 points ]

One of the attractions of the Khwarazmian Army is the option to take an elephant instead of a unit of medium cavalry. When i bought the majority of the lead from Gripping Beast I also picked up one of their Timurid Elephants.

When they arrived the Elephant crew were on the chunkier side compared to the rest of the army. I think if I had painting them they would have looked fine on the table, but while they were on the painting desk and my focus was 100% on them the difference was niggling away at me, so I decided to convert mine.

It turned out to be a bit more work than initially planned but when you have fallen down a rabbit hole I figure you may as well keep going and see where it ends.

I kept the initial elephant but sourced a howdah from Aventine Miniatures. It initially looked like it was floating in space so I used some wire to create some ropes attaching the howdah to the elephant. The mahout had a head swap so he echoed the light cavalry, as well as some milliput on the feet to create boots. The crew in the howdah are from the same range as the earlier medium cavalry I posted from Aventine Miniatures. Fortunately the body's come separately from the legs, so I attached them to some plastic legs I had and used some milliput to make a simple tunic around the join.

Anyway, this is my elephant. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.

1 x 28mm Elephant and 3 crew = 40 35 points

Gotta have a Heffalump if the list allows and yours is truly lovely.  I do like the armour on the beast and the howdah conversion looks really good.  Plus you got to fall down a research rabbit hole, one of my main reasons for keeping my armies historical.

Consultation with fellow minions indicates that the elephant counts as a vehicle for 20 plus 5 each for the crew make a total of 35.  However, I'll add a few for the conversion, armour and casework.

From Matt T - Growing the Horde, [ 85 points ]

This post sees me continuing to progress with my Khwarazmian Army for Basic Impetus. The army list calls for 4 bases of bow armed medium cavalry. 2 bases are slightly better quality and I have chosen to represent these on barded horses. Not sure if it is entirely accurate but it does make them easily distinguished on the table top. 

The minis are from the excellent Aventine Miniatures Sassanids range. They are from the right part of the world, even if they are a bit earlier I am not sure how much the would have changed. Anyway I think they scrub up pretty well, shields are hand painted but the banner is from LBMS. 

8 x 28mm Mounted Cavalry @ 10 points each = 80 points total.

Wow those are great looking heavy cavalry Matt.  Really like the work on the horse barding and the shields.  

I appear to be giving out extra points like candy today, but you've getting some too.  I need to get the generosity out of my system before I grade Calculus midterms on Wednesday.

BenF: 15mm Persian 'Apple Bearer' Royal Guard (53 pts)

 Well, this challenge has been a bit slow for me to start this year. Between a new role at work, the silly season, and arranging an upcoming game at CANCON as well as my 4 year old'd birthday, hobby time has been a little thin on the ground. 

I have, however, managed to kick start my painting with this base of Achaemenid Persian royal guard from Forged in Battle's excellent 'War and Empire' range. My last year's challenge focused almost exclusively on building up my Achaemenid army, and while they've won a surprising number of games during 2022, I did feel like I needed to add this iconic unit to round off the army. The royal guard fought at Gaugamela, and also are mentioned at Cunaxa. I gave the usual gaudy Persian pyjamas a bit of a semi-uniform look as I imagine befits the royal guard, and I also added a mounted general in suitably ornate dress haranguing them into action. They get the strange name from some unusual spears, which apparently had an apple sized counterweight at the non-pointy end. The shield decals from LBMS really make them. 

While I do have plans to revisit the Achaemenids at a later date to add a few more cavalry bases, (and maybe even expand the Skythian troops to a full army), the addition of the royal guard give me pretty much any option i'd ever need in a large game of Impetus 2 or Sword and Spear. And I think my 3/0 brushes need a bit of rest from painting fabric decorations. I'm also hoping that this exotic unit from faraway locales will bag me the 'World Cinema' bonus.

I'm also going to enter this as the start of my 'Squirrel' side duel. This challenge, I aim to finish up some bits and pieces of long term projects, including 6mm Napoleonics, 32mm Star Wars 3D Prints, some 20mm Ardennes Germans and Yanks, tiny little 2mm terrain pieces, perhaps a smattering of 15mm Andalusians and whatever else can distract me from the task at hand. 

14 foot and 1 mounted 15mm figure should net me a grand total of 

14 x 15mm foot @ 2 points = 28 points

1 x 15mm mounted @ 4 points = 4 points

World Cinema (Green) bonus = 20 points

Total = 52 points

Next up i'm working on some teensy 6mm Napoleonic Russians.

Lovely stuff Ben, I had to check twice to make sure that these were 15s and not 28s.  The colour palette you've gone with really works and does give them a mostly uniform looks.  Also love the mounted officer.  Your transfers came out very well, I just don't have the skill or patience for that fiddliness in 28s let alone 15s.

Well done and looking forward to the defenders of Mother Russia against thee Corsican Tyrant.

BenF: 15mm Hellenistic Ancients (Istvaan V) 164 Pts

Well, I've not managed to post anything for the last few weeks, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been productive. Besides finally contracting the dreaded lurgi and being isolated for 7 days along with my wife and 3 year old, I've actually managed to paint up quite a few 15mm and 6mm figures, even a few aircraft! For this entry, I include the last (for this challenge) of my Hellenistic Ancients for my Impetus 2 forces. These are a mixed bag of light troops and mercenaries.

First off, the javelinmen. These are a base each of Illyrians, Kappadokians, and the Agrianians. The shield designs are all hand painted, and the Kappadokians are headswapped. All figures are from Forged in Battle's 15mm War and Empire range. 

Kappadokians

Illyrians

Agrianians

Next, its a horde of Thracians. These are a ubiquitous mercenary unit which served the Persians, Macedonians, Successors, and others. While the shield patterns on this lot are the excellent LBMS offerings, the geometric patterns on the cloaks are hand painted. These are seen often in Greek pottery and funerary paintings, as well as being described by Herodotus. The armoured lot are armed with the terrifying rhomphaia, a mix between a war axe, spear, and sword. As mercenaries, Thracian troops would often look after themselves, betraying their employer when unpaid.

Thracians with Rhomphaia

Thracian Peltasts

Next, it's the last bits of my Late Achaemenid Persian host, the infantry. These took me a long time to get the nerve up to attempt, not only because of the ornately decorated pyjamas, but also because they are, shall we say, not the highest quality troops you would find on an ancient battlefield. First the Kardakes and Takabara, light foot, the Takabara appear to possibly have been some kind of imitation hoplite, armed with javelins. To represent them, I ground the peltast shields of some Kardakes and added hoplite shields with LBMS decals.

The Kardakes were more akin to Greek peltasts, though they may have been some kind of cadet corps of light infantry. I hand painted the shield designs on these as LBMS don't make any decals for the peltast shields. Very pretty in the end, but the slingers are probably the most effective warriors of the lot of them! 

Takabara.

Kardakes

Slingers

Finally, it's a bevvy of Greek and Macedonians. The cavalry are Greek mediums, which can serve as Thessalians, though when I painted them I was inspired by the Hippeis of Kineas of Athens. This is the mercenary cavalry formation of Greek outcasts and warriors commanded by the Athenian exile, Kineas, to whom they owe absolute loyalty. Kineas is the protagonist for the first two of Christian Cameron's excellent Tyrant series.

The books describe their blue cloaks and some silvered armour, so here you are. I also drilled out and replaced the short javelins on the Forged in Battle figures with longer spears to represent the kontos used by Greek and Macedonian cavary during the period. I've also painted up a generic Macedonian command stand, perhaps representing Alexander's doomed general Zopyrion who was defeated by the Skythians and Olbians. I've also created a command base for Antigonos I Monopthalmus, or 'One-Eye', one of the greatest of Alexander's successors. I sculpted the eye patch on to represent this old war hound. One-Eye lived a remarkably long life filled with a remarkable amount of violence, and when he finally died in combat at the Battle of Ipsus in 301BC, he was 81 years old!

The Hippeis, led by Kineas of Athens.

The unfortunate Zopyrion

Antigonos I Monopthalmus. Annoyingly, I just noticed the flock on the standing commanders face!

That's it for the Ancients this entry. Next challenge I aim to focus on building up my 15mm Ancient forces more, most likely either on Carthaginians, or to make a start on my Nikephorian Byzantines. 

Grand total is 164points for this lot by my calculations

15mm foot = 52 @ 2 pts

15mm mounted = 10 @ 4 pts

Istvaan V bonus (betrayal for the Thracians, or Loyalty for the Hippeis) = 20 pts

From Millsy:

Another utterly amazing addition to your Ancients efforts this challenge Ben.

Everything is so wonderfully colourful and at the same time cohesive. Your bold colour choices, composition and complimentary basing style make your work so tempting to try and replicate.

As a fan of Carthaginians myself I'm putting in an early request for some of them next challenge please mate!

Wonderful work once again. Kudos.

From DaveS: More Florentines (120pts)

So I missed the posting deadline last weeek, which means that I have 2 weeks worth of models today, although the rate of posting has slowed significantly due to work commitments.

First up, we have the first of 2 units of Landsknechts, which will together from a Pike Block for BI2.

These have followed my theme of them probably being a bit more colourful than was strictly necessary, but it gives them a visual impact, especially when compared to the red and white of the City State units.

Next, we have another unit of Polearms from the State of Florence.  These were again made from bits of the Warlord Landsknecht's and Perry European Mercenaries sets.  Florence would conscript able bodied men, and issued them with Harness and Halberd or Boar Spear.  To give the impression of centrally issued equipment, I have managed to use a small range of the armoured bodies to give them a pseudo uniform appearance.  Nothing incredibly creative in their paint jobs.

This gives me another 24x28mm models, which should be an even 120pts.  It also brings me over halfway to my target of 2000pts, and only just behind schedule.

Well done on reaching 1000 points! I'm confident you'll make your goal. I like how your Landsknechts contrast with the more uniform Florentines.

Barks