From MartijnN: The last post (The Inconstant, The Ambitious) (137 points)

Phew. Managed to get my 6mm cavalry and artillery done just in time. So here are my last figures for Challenge XV:

These are five bases for my Blucher French force. There is a brigade each of dragoons, cuirassiers and chasseurs a cheval, and a both a foot artillery and a horse artillery battery.

Horse artillery and foot artillery

A brigade of Chasseurs a Cheval

Cuirassiers and Dragoons

They are all Baccus miniatures.

There was one Circle of Hell left to visit, Treachery. I had a great idea to paint up a 6mm figure representing the Count De Bourmont, a French Géneral de Division commanding the 14th division, who deserted to the Allies on the morning of the 15th of June, 1815. However, I also had an idea for the first two Spheres of Paradise, so I had to get my priorities right. Having done enough Circles, Paradise was in reach!

So, for the Inconstant and The Ambitious, as must surely be a shock for anyone who followed me along during this Challenge, I have painted two Iain Lovecraft figures. Here is the wobbly old King, representing the Inconstant, and his just a little too eager son, the Crown Prince, representing the Ambitious:

As you can see, the old King likes his liquor a little too much, and his crown is tottering as a result. I will leave it up to you to decide if he is either eagerly reaching for or desperately rejecting the cup his son, who thinks he has been waiting for the Throne quite long enough, is offering him."Come on, dad, one more won't hurt, right?".

They are 3d printed figures. I really love these Lovecraft figures, they are so full of character. I will probably never find any use for them, but they are fun to paint!

And I also painted a log cabin. No points, just for show (and hopefully help persuade Curt to let terrain back in next Challenge 😉). It is a very bad photo, it is a lot more colourful in real life. Very simple paintjob, but I am pleased with it:

So I made it to Paradise in the end. Scoring is easy I guess:

66 6mm cavalry @1 = 66

7 6mm guns @1 = 7

28x 6mm foot @0.5= 14

2x 28mm foot @5= 10

2 Challenge locations = 40

For a total of 137 points. 

Thanks for looking. I'll leave the formal thanksgiving for the wrap-up post, but thank you all for the support and the encouraging comments. I am already looking forward to Challenge XVI!

Martijn 

______________________________________

What a lovely last post Martijn! I particularly like your Napoleonic French Horse Artillery, but have to laugh and admire your Inconstant and Ambitious. You've been a great booster of Lovecraft's miniatures and these two are worthy additions to your collection. The cabin looks very nice and cozy. Who knows, perhaps my heart (or head) will soften to terrain for next year. :) 

Last but not least, thank you so very much for serving as our Friday Minion. Your comments and support were well received and I very much enjoyed your grand tour of brews and spirits that can be found in the Low Countries. I hope we can imbibe a few in a future visit (along with a rousing rematch of SAGA)!

- Curt

From FrederickC: More Polish 10th Motorized Brigade and a Circle of Paradise [The Inconstant] (195 Points)

There is less than a week to go now, so this may be my final submission, or possibly my penultimate, if I put my nose to the grindstone. This week I present some more troops for my 10th Polish Motorized Brigade, also known as 'The Black Brigade'. 

10th Polish Motorized Brigade

 

Ten of the figures are from a box of Warlord Games Polish Infantry Squad in Greatcoats that I bought last July at Historicon. After I got back home I decided I would rather have a fourth squad of Black Brigade motorized troops and did a bit of conversion work, carving away the gas mask bag and replacing it with a German style canister, and swapping out the heads that came with Polish helmets for spare German ones. The M35 helmet doesn't have quite the same profile as the M16 helmet, so I added 'ventilation horns' characteristic of the earlier helmet. 

The remaining 24 figures are 3D prints using an STL from MyMiniFactory of Polish motorcycle troops wearing the black leather coats that gave the formation the nickname of 'The Black Brigade'. I am generally pleased with the look of the prints, but again there are a few niggling errors - the bayonet looks more like a belt knife, being rather small and mounted too high, the profile of the helmet is off at the back, rising much like a Soviet helmet, and two of the figures have 'carrying straps to nowhere', running over the shoulder, but with nothing suspended from them like a haversack or gas mask canister.

All the figures were mounted on 25mm round bases, and some fine sand was added using PVA glue. They were then primed with Vallejo Black Surface Primer using an airbrush. Painting was done using Vallejo acrylics as follows: faces and hands - Flat Flesh; greatcoats and trousers - Green Brown; haversacks and equipment straps - Green Grey; gas mask canister - Luftwaffe Camo Green; helmets - Brown Violet; belts and ammo pouches - Flat Earth; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; rifle slings - Mahogany Brown; leather coats and metal weapons parts - German Grey; jackboots - Black, bayonets - Gungrey. When all was done, the figures got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. 

 

Polish motorized infantry squad (front)

Polish motorized infantry squad (side)

Polish motorized infantry squad (back)

Closeup of conversion work (gas mask canister)

Closeup of conversion work (ventilation horns added to helmet)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 1 (front)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 1 (back)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 2 (front)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 2 (side)

Since I got the dismounted motorcycle troops printed, I acquired another STL from the same designer for motorcycles with sidecars and the field car similar to what I painted up last year, but I haven't got them printed yet. A project for AHPC XVI?

The last figure for this post is an officer that came from the box of Wargames Atlantic French Infantry that I painted at the beginning of the challenge. Rather than paint him in Horizon Blue, I have done him in colours appropriate for May 1940. I am going to apply him to what will be my only Circle of Paradise of the Divine Comedy - The Inconstant - which is described in the theme guide as 'something which may try its best but often falls a bit short'. The French army in May 1940 had more men than the Germans, and more tanks, with better armour and firepower than most German tanks, yet when push came to shove, it crumbled in the face of 'Blitzkrieg'. The troops at the ground level fought hard, but the leadership at higher command seemed to be lacking. 

French Officer - May 1940 (front)

 

French Officer - May 1940 (back)

The points being claimed are as follows:

35 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points = 175 points

1 x Circle of Paradise - The Inconstant = 20 points

 Thanks for stopping by. 

Sylvain: Another greatly educational and entertaining post from you, Frederick. Your production for this Challenge was stunning, again, and I am very curious to see the picture of your wrap up, next week. I hope I will be able to see you across the table this year. I plan on going to Brandon in May, and maybe you will be there. It was an honor and a privilege to be your minion this year.

From QuinnM: Just Variety and The Inconstant (205 points)

I took 2 weeks off painting as I was feeling burnt out but I came back strong this week. I have a number of different things from stormcast to skaven and the last batch of elves.

First we have the last few Stormcast I have unpainted. A lord relictor and a unit of reclusians. the paint scheme for them is really simple silver armor with blue, purple and red accent colors. they are painted differently for the rest of my stormcast as they are part of the more religious sub faction and i wanted to differentiate them 

Next we have a clawlord on Gnaw-beast from the Skaventide box. I wanted to try source lighting from the gnaw portal on the base but the little bit I did wasn't great so I left it at that as this is a commission piece for a friends Skaven army. 

On top of the clawlord I painted up a acolyte globadier for them and it was real fun as I got to paint up a glowing orb for the first time. It is not perfect but they are happy with the final look.

For the inconstant i panted the last of the space marines from my friend and in all honesty i'm a not sure about this one. he is panted up as the space marines 2 fan chapter the crayon eaters. where every panel of armour is a different color and to rely show this the clock is painted in a rainbow camo(yes i know that is a oxymoron) that a washed with a black speed pant. a lot of the colors turned out great most of them are hiding behind the gun. but the pink i had was not blending so i ended up mixing my own and got more of a salmon. so there is a before and after.) i could not think of something more inconstant than someone that can't stick to a consistent color. 

I did also pant up 2 more of the old goblin trolls. I used slightly different oranges as highlighting colors but you can't really tell in the photos. 

and lastly I have the last of the elven spearmen. I painted them in one batch over the whole week and boy do I hate batch painting. but they are done for now. we are not going to look at the 150 night goblins sitting in the to-be painted box. next i have the heroes and some horsemen for the elves and it will be my second fully painted army. 

35x28mm footman@5 points=175 points

1x28mm cavalry@10 points=10 points

The Inconstant= 20 points

205 points total

Sylvain: Sorry I missed this post from last week. It's really a feast for the eyes that you are offering us this week. Your painting style in general, but especially this week, brings out the grim and dark aspect of some of the miniatures.Great work!

From AdamW: 15mm Chinese rocket battery (The Inconstant) (66pts)

A quick last minute entry for this week.

 After a long time in hell I have finally reached paradise!  Some rapid painting and basing and I present my entry for the first Sphere, the Inconstant, something which may try its best but often falls a bit short.

For this I present a battery of Chinese rockets in 15mm.  Throughout history rockets always seem to be fairly erratic and inconstant in their accuracy, so they seemed a good subject.

In our rules we usually make them less accurate than other artillery, but more deadly if they hit.

The rockets and most of the figures are Museum miniatures, with three Lancashire games figures added for variety. 

Points claim

15 x 15mm crew @2pts = 30pts

4 x artillery pieces @4pts = 16pts

Inconstant bonus @20pts = 20pts

Total 66pts

A very fitting subject for The Inconstant, Adam! They are very nice models, and you did a great job on them. Now let's just hope they will not backfire too much... 66 more points to you.

Martijn

From RayR: My Journey to Paradise via the Retreat from Moscow (160 points)

Continuing my journey through Dante's Divine Comedy, I having completed The Abyss, find myself on my way to Paradise, so here are my 5 Sphere's.

First up we have the First Sphere The Inconstant, I had to look the word up.....just to make sure, of course...

First Sphere: The Inconstant
No Ray, not the Incontinent... :) Instead, think of something which may try its best but often falls a bit short.

Its nice how I still get the odd mention in the rules and regs of the Challenge, its usually something to do with Sandbags, Badgers or Budgie Smugglers, never usually about crappin' yourself!

Anyhoo, something that falls short.

It was the look on the first Mules face, he's not gonna budge, even if your'e waving some carrots in his face! But is it the Mule or the cloaked Vivandière who falls a bit short???

I was a little stuck on this one, then remembered these models. I bought them from Col Bill's sometime ago, again for my Haitian Revolution project. But decided, to use them for the Retreat instead.  

The figures are from Warlord Games, Napoleonic range, I added a cloak to the poor lady, I don't expect she's gonna get far though, with all those provisions on the 3 Mules.

These should earn me 20 points for the figures and another 20 for the bonus round.

Next up we have the Second Sphere - The Ambitious

Second Sphere: The Ambitious
A figure that is as keen as mustard, an overachiever (yes, so annoying, I know).

The first ever Napoleonic figure I ever painted was a figure from the Neuchatel Battalion, who unusually wore a yellow or mustard coloured coat, not a red coat like other Swiss regts or blue like every other French unit

So I thought I'd paint up a mustard coated, keen as mustard Officer, I may have to paint up some infantry as well, trouble is they'll probably be wearing a overcoat, so you won't see their mustard/yellow coat??

The Neuchatel Battalion had a bit of a rough time during the retreat, having joined the Grand Armee in March 1812, the regiment included, Infantry, Engineers, Artillery and the Artillery train, from an original 1,027 men, only 13 Officers and 7 men returned to camp at Besancon!!!

Points.... 5pts for the figure, plus another 20 for the Ambitious bonus

Next in line is the Third Sphere - The Lovers.

Third Sphere: The Lovers
This could be platonic love, romantic love, but not love based on lust - that's for the 'other place'.

This pair of lovebirds are once again from pack FN 193 Camp Followers

A wounded Cuirassier and his lady friend, struggle through the snow.

Hoping to make their way home???

The Lovers will give me 10 pts plus 20 pts for the bonus round.

Next we move onto the next Sphere, the 4th - The Wise

Fourth Sphere: The Wise
Something contemplative and sage. Essentially no figure having any kind of resemblance to me. :) Think that's me as well as Curt??

This fine looking chap's from Eureka and comes along with the Napoleon figure I painted up for the Greed bonus round.

This is Jean Baptiste Eblé, a French General, Engineer and Artilleryman. He is credited with saving Napoleon's Grand Armee from complete destruction in 1812.

In 1811, Eblé was put in command of the Dutch Pontoon bridge builders (pontonniers) for the Grande Armee which Napoleon was assembling for the invasion of Russia. Eblé discovered he had inherited a rag-tag collection of boatmen, yet in less than a year he had turned them into a disciplined, highly trained and skilled force who would soon prove indispensable. Besides training, Eblé also issued his pontonniers specialized tools and equipment, the most notable of which were the mobile wagon-mounted forges, that could quickly make any needed but unavailable metal parts or items.

During the disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812, Napoleon ordered Eblé to destroy the pontonniers' mobile forges, so that these valuable pieces of engineering technology would not fall into enemy hands. Eblé argued with his Emperor, that without the forges his men could not perform their duty and the greater danger to the Armée was to be caught between an uncrossable river and a vengeful, pursuing enemy. Napoleon insisted they be destroyed, but Eblé went against his orders and kept the vital equipment intact.

When the Armée arrived at the Berezina River it found itself trapped, with the Russians fast bearing down and no way to cross. Eblé's men worked feverishly in dangerously frigid water to complete the bridges in time for the Armée to escape. With the way across the Berezina opened, most of the surviving remnants successfully crossed. But the campaign had taken a heavy toll on General Eblé's men and his health. He died in Konigsberg shortly after returning from Russia.

This wise man will earn me 5pts and another 20 for the bonus round

Next I'll call on Sarah the Seraphim to take me along to my last Circle No 8

But instead of the usual female figure fee, I've overpaid and give you 3 female figures

Lula the dog, Cossette and Clementine

The pup is from Front Rank and Cossette and Clementine are from the same pack as the Lovers above.

These 3 will earn 15 points

So onto my final Circle.....

Eighth Sphere: The Fixed Stars of Faith, Hope and Love

Submit a figure depicting any of these laudable themes.

Well I'm going for Hope.....

Poor Nadine, has given up all Hope and cannot move another muscle.

Will she ever rise again?

Probably not.....

Nadine is my last figure from pack FN 193 Camp Followers from Perry Miniatures, she will earn me another 25 points!

So all in all we have....

1st Sphere - The Inconstant 40 points

2nd Sphere - The Ambitious - 25 points

3rd Sphere - The Lovers 30 points

4th Sphere - The Wise 25 points

Sarah's Seraphim 15 points

8th Sphere - Hope 25 points

So a grand total of  160 points!!

TeemuL: Excellent work again Ray, painting lots of bonus points which all contribute to your great Retreat project. I admire you able to keep the focus on a single theme!