From GregB: Leopold's Leopard Company (122 points)

"Leopold's Leopard Company" is ready to meet an opponent's charge...

I am super pleased to present another Regiment of Renown from GW's old "Dogs of War" collection - here is Leopold's Leopard Company, and they are ready to stand in your battle line - so long as the deposit is paid up front and on time. These battle-hardened pikemen are long-OOP metal castings from Games Workshop and the glorious before-times.

One of the front-rankers, pike set, ready for the clash.

A back ranker.

Leopold and his men started out as guards of the Temple of Lucan and Luccina in the Tilean city of Luccini. It was fancy, well-paid duty. The unit is resplendent in fine armour adorned with the symbols of the temple - in particular the visage of the leopard who had guarded the divine twins! They are further adorned with the pelts of leopards. As military units go, the Leopard Company dressed the part!

These chaps are ready for a fight too!

How did the Leopard Company end up as mercenaries? Well, let's just say "local Luccini politics" intervened. In the midst of some civil strife there may, or may not, have been a siege of the temple in which it may, or may not, have become necessary for Leopold and his men to, er, "borrow" the gold offerings stored within which in turn may, or may not, have brought down some kind of divine curse which can only be held at bay by traveling the Old World, fighting as mercenaries and sending a portion of the gold they earned back to the temple to, um, "repay" their "debt."

Leopold and the command group. He is carrying healthy-sized "sword" (more of a cleaver), and I love the pistol tucked into the belt.

Naturally the command group has the nicest collection of pelts!

It is a real thrill to get this unit over the line for a couple of reasons. First, this is a Dogs of War unit which I had not previously painted back when I owned my original collection. I had wanted to take a crack at them, but a) already had assembled a decent-size force and b) was kind of intimidated by all of the leopard-style pelts. Nearly every figure in the unit is wearing a pelt. The studio models in the army book looked amazing (of course), but painting those spotted pelts looked really tricky and beyond my brush skills at the time.

Another ranker.

25 years later wariness of painting the pelts was still holding me back, but I was determined to try...there was a lot of trial and error on the first couple of test figures, but I managed to work out an approach that seemed OK, and in particular looked pretty good when the troops were massed together. Even if the spot pattern is not exactly that of a leopard, I can always push the fantasy-escape-button. "Oh, you see, those are the pelts of the, er, 'Tilean Mountain Leopard', and the spots look...just like that..."

From this aspect you can see some of the assorted small details that add character. Like the chap at the rear with a portion of rope, the different types of packs etc. 

Each time I have completed one of these units, I have commented on how wonderful these old sculpts are. This time will be no exception - let it be said, again, that these old sculpts are just wonderful! So much character, brilliant metal sculpts from the Perry brothers. While there is, of course, broad similarity to the figures, there are a number of small little variants among the sculpts that add just enough difference, and a little touch of character, to let each figure be slightly unique while preserving the overall uniform look to the unit. It has been such a treat to paint these figures, with their crisp, proper metal lines and details. 

I love these big pike blocks!

So that is now three large, chonky pike blocks completed to serve as a solid backbone for my "Dogs of War" army, but this project is still not yet complete. The army will require some artillery support and a bit of cavalry to round things out. Time in this edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is running short, so those elements are likely to have to wait until the next one, but who knows what might be possible before things conclude? 

"Ready lads!"

Points-wise we have 24 figures, 28mm in size, which should be good for 120 points. That's all for now, but I hope to be back with more as the mad-dash to the AHPC finish line looms. 

=====================

Sylvain: Another convincing demonstration of your talent both with the pigment and with the verb. As you said, despite their individuality and their personal details, the figurines, as a whole, contribute to the overall sumptuousness of their company. Your projects always come with a story that I always enjoy reading. I will add 2 points for the large flag. It has been an honor to be your minion; "à la prochaine". 

 

 

From SanderS: Bring on the big gun! (30 points)

 Hoi,

Time and inspiration are seriously lacking this Challenge for me, but yet I managed to finish two little pieces to keep going. First up is an Empire Hellblaster volleygun for The Old World.  

This is a great model and I had so much fun painting it for my Middenheim army, with the blue carriage and all the accessoires on the base.

Last is an unitfiller for my Bretonnian army, I think it's a resin 3d print from Highland miniatures. I have desert-themed it for the Araby Crusade part of my force. 

I have no idea how to classify the unit filler so am not counting it for points so just the crewed weapon for me today.

Cheers Sander 

Sander, I'm loving the throwbacks to Warhammer Fantasy Battle here! I have some triggering memories of playing against GregB's Empire army and its Helblaster (eek), man that thing was a deadly piece of ordnance. Yours looks fantastic in Middenheim colours, I pity the enemy who faces that thing. As far as the Bretonnian unit filler... it looks to me like about as much work as an infantry model, so I'm awarding five points.

That's 10 for the Helblaster, five each for the crew and five for the filler base, total 30 points.

Dallas

From GregB - Ricco's Republican Guard (120 points)

Ricco's Republican Guard stand ready for contact!

This week another Regiment of Renown takes its place in the line - fantasy warlords with high cash flow rejoice! Ricco's Republican Guard are here to serve your military requirements. These are 28mm figures from GW's long-gone "Dogs of War" collection - beautiful, beautiful metal castings from the late 1990s! This whole project is a mega-nostalgia-trip for me, but this unit really stands out, as my original "Dogs of War" force had this unit as one of its core formations.

Pikes lowered for action!

Hailing from the wealthy Tilean Republic of Remas, the Republican Guard represent the higher-end of the Dogs of War mercenary pike regiments. Whereas the Alcatani Fellowship are kind of a "pike-block-on-a-budget", the Ricco's Republican Guard are the choice of the discerning military commanders of the Old World who have cash to burn. The Republican Guard have higher levels of training and wear heavy armour - and once you factor in the pikes, they make for a terrifying unit on the Warhammer Fantasy Battle gaming table. 

Ricco and his unit got their start in Remas, but ultimately had a falling-out with the ruling council - they tried to have Ricco executed because he would not share his loot with them! His loyal soldiers would have none of that, and so they liberated him from the jail. Now he leads his Republican Guard into battle across the Old Word. Ricco himself still brandishes a bloody rag going into battle, a tribute to their roots in the revolutionary street fighting in Remas.

A view of some of the pikemen.

Love the heavy armour on these guys.

Throughout this project I have been singing the praises of GW's classic Dogs of War figure range - and I will do it again here! Sculpted by the Perry Brothers, these miniatures were an absolute joy to paint. I just love the look of the Italian (Tilean) style heavy plate armour worn by these figures - and then all of the classic Warhammer accents such as the feathers and the varied bags and sacks. They have a uniform look and yet there are many subtle variants to be found among the sculpts. 

"Steady lads!"

Getting these fellows built in such a way they can be packed into ranks took a bit of work, and this was a particularly tricky unit because all of the castings had some variant of a lowered pike pose (as opposed to the other pike units, which have more sculpts where the pikemen are standing at ease). Fortunately I recalled the troubles I had back in the late 90s and planned ahead this time, ensuring a functional mix of front rankers and was able to vary the positions on the bases so they could crowd together in the unit. 

A silver trumpet to inspire the men - and a handy mace to back up any missed musical notes.

Ricco and his bloodied rag are ready to engage.

Standard bearer.

View of the Republican Guard, in formation.

"Liberty! Equity! Liquidity!"

For scoring purposes, these are 28mm figures, and we have 24 of them in the unit, which should be good for another 120 points.

 

============================

Sylvain: To hear Greg talk about his love for (specific) miniatures is always a moment to which I look forward every week. Wow, what a majestic sight you offer us this time! Rich colors, rich metal, rich mercenaries... what is there not to love? Génial!

 

From QuinnM: Freehand practice (5 points)

This week I have been painting up some of my Grand Cathay Jade Warriors. But as I've been badge of painting 30 of them, they're not all done just yet but I did put some extra time into their Banner bearer with some free hand. 

The only free hand I've done before this was some simple small logos so this is a big leap but it was a really fun thing to do and I'm very happy with the final result. 

For points this week it's 1-28 mm foot soldier for five points.

 ================

Sylvain: Quinn, your little side project turned out great! It's this kind of detail that really adds lots of "pizzazz" (is this still a word?) to your whole army. I shall use my minion's right to reward flags and banners and throw in an extra 3 points. Génial!

From TeemuL: Cocks of War (30 points)

About ten years ago I added two halflings to my project: Pair of Hobbits. In the comments section I pitied myself for not owning more. At some point during the last 10 years I have manage to acquire 6 more of these beauties and this week I managed to finish the paintjob. This year seems to be quite popular Dogs of War / Regiments of Renown year (as usual), so a perfect opportunity to add my offerings on the plate.

There are 4 different sculpts of these, two pairs with almost identical sculpts. I guess there were 4 so GW could sell 3 random minis in one blister and there would be difference. Monsters & Mercenaries Collector's Guide only shows 3 different sculpts, I guess they are so similar that they missed the fourth one... My entry has 6 halflings with only 3 different sculpts, one is there 4 times! I already had all of them before, so I guess I can live with the repetition.

I like to paint these non-uniformed minis, because they don't have uniform! Especially these halflings, because they can use all the crazy colours and still be serious representatives of their race. I used quite a lot of greens and browns, but also some brighter colours here and there. Looking at the photos I seem to chosen quite a lot of blue for these guys, too. The second from the left is painted like part of my British Peninsular Troops. Lots of different colours, but mainly base colour, wash, highlight and second highlight - choose two or four of them. :) Goblin Green bases as usual and self made tufts.

A sneaky or absent minded participant might try to claim squirrel point for these, but that is strictly forbidden in the rules: "If you would expect to see them on the same side of the table during a game, they are NOT a Squirrel Point." As I have earlier painted some Dwarf Slayers, which could easily be on the same side with these Halflings, I can't claim the squirrel. Of course in the world of fantasy (especially if the world was created to sell lots of minis and allow everyone fight everyone with anyone) this is a bit trickier than with historical armies, but since this entry is entirely about mercenaries, I would be a president of the USA if I'd claim a squirrel for these.

So just the plain 30 points for 6 halflings, which have been traditionally scored as full 28 minis for 5 points each. Below you can see the whole dozen, backrow painted in the previous decade...

P.S. My longish sickness has now ended, so I have less time to paint. Thank you all for your support and kind words! Unfortunately I have been bit slow to follow the blog and especially comment all the fabulous entries, I'll try to be more active in the future. I belive this is all from me this week, I need to finish the "Toy" bonus round, too, and I'm away from Friday to Sunday.

 

Great to hear you are restored to full healthpoints Teemu! Those venerable Halflings really are a gorgeous sight indeed, great work! 

Cheers Sander  

From TeemuL: All are one in Nagash and Nagash is all (10 points)

All are one in Nagash and Nagash is all. All I need for an army is Nagash. I don't need an army, I am one.

The first phrase is a classic line from Warhammer, other two are my own invetions or reinventions based on others. I bought this Nagash couple of years ago, it just looks great and is perfect mini for skull infested (no turnip infestion this year, hurray!) AHPC. I'm not really into Undead armies in any games, but Undead are the only army I have managed to buy for Warmaster and this mini is just great. So he will be my Warhammer Fantasy Battle Undead Army, and I won't need anything more.

I stripped the old paints and started from Brainmatter Beige (GW TM) basecoat. There are lots of skulls, so some colour choices were easy. I also wanted him to wear black, it creates a nice contrast to bone and is in average considered "cool." Dead cool, maybe? I added some purple for royal look, in the end Nagash is quite a narcist. Gold fits there, too, being royal, bright and looks good next to black. Those were the main colours. Skulls were first paited brown, then drybrushed with skin, followed be flesh shade wash and another drybrush of skin, before drybrushing with bone and finally some areas were drybrushed with white. Black robes were highlighted with purple and gold areas with silver. Base is naturally goblin green, Nagash is on a crusade in the Old World, not scheming in the desert.

Jewels were painted red and his book with flesh tones - his book might be covered in human skin? The sword is good old metal with a tint of blue, perhaps some magic? I was thinking about to paint it like a bone sword, but then I would had to have named it "Boner", because it is made of bone and it makes bones of people. But the image of Nagash walking around with a huge Boner in his hand, slashing and hacking here and there with his Boner, people running away in horror, all the moaning and groaning in the background, Nagash hissing "Do you want to have a taste of my Boner? My Boner is thirsty for your flesh! Let's finish this, Boner!" and I just couldn't do it.

Charming face

Nagash is far from a skeleton, you might say and you are correct! However, his skin seems to be very similar colour to the skulls and here I'm hoping to achieve a very old, dry, shrinken, almost bloodless wrinkled skin. I think it looks better than sickly green or pure white or healthy skin, but you may disagree - and be cursed by Nagash for eternity AND forever!

Nagash's book

A very nice mini to paint, it is basically just upscaled 28mm fantasy miniature instead of modern sculpts, which are large and filled with all kinds of details - pouches, trinkets, engravings, purity seals or skulls. In the nice and easy mini to paint, even though a large one and a center piece. But I believe I managed to paint him nicely within my skill limits and not trying something too much and failing.

Regarding scoring and skulls, I refer to a recent post made by a professional mathemagician and curated by respected archivist: https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2022/02/from-millsy-moar-skullz-10-points.html

Millsy regarded Nagash as a 54mm miniature for 10 points and Curt awarded him 5 bonus points. As a humble participant, I'll ask for those same 10 and see how friendly minion Sander handles the situation (I might note that Nagash is pretty much the same size as 40K dreadnoughts, which have been scored as vehicles for 20 points).

But no, I'm not trying to claim him as a big stompy robot, no! And he is not worthy of a squirrel, either, no!

So many skulls

But I'll claim couple of skulls, though. I refer again to Millsy's excellent post to make it easier for me and my minion. Millsy counted 155 skulls on the mini and then 6 more on the base. I believe I have the same number of the skulls on the mini. Following the example of a great man, I decided to add some skulls on the base, too. I grapped my plastic bag of human miniature skulls and there happened to be 7 skulls inside (true story). I decided to glue them all on the base and reuse the plastic bag for something else, so 7 skulls on the base and 162 in total from Nagash. I guess I had 9 before?

Okay Teemu, who am I to question the great Snowlord's judgement? I will award 10 points and comment you on your painting of this great old school WHF character.

Cheers Sander  

From TeemuL: More Slayers! (30 points)

As promised last week, here are the rest of the Slayer group.

POV: Opponent

So six more GW Slayers, one of them is a banner bearer, but since the original banner never came to me (these are all second hand purchases), I needed a replacement. The banner is a piece of Age of Sigmar Magmadroth, in the Old World the skin could be from dragon for example. Very simple solution and even simpler paint job! No fancy heraldy or unit numbers, just clear and brutal annotation that "We Killed A Red Dragon!"

POV: You

I experimented with hair/beard colours again, so here are two oranges again - one of them is familiar from last week (the darker) and one is new one, so there are now three different orange dyes in the group to bring up some variation. Some of the highlights are quite yellow, especially in the photos. In nature they are not that bright, I'm not sure if that is good or bad. The axes look good, there are two layers of different metallic paints, but I guess the lightning and photographing is what matters here more. One more additional detail of my tip last week, using similar colours and then one wash to cover them all helps hide small errors on painting, too. 

Photographing these is a bit annoying since it is difficult to figure out which side is front and which is not. The minis are from different sets, so probably some are meant for diagonal and some for horizontal slotta bases, but I just try to live with it. Yes, the common Old World problem, or is it First World?

My Squirrel mind is fighting my Hoarder mind, because I keep thinking of getting more of these, since they are so nice to paint and I don't have all the differents sculpts yet... Anyway, these six slayers should give me 30 points.

Participation fee: I decided to donate 20 euroes to WWF Finland for Finnish Nature. Our government (quite racist far right - we have gone far from that smart, young, female prime minister we used to have during covid) has decided to cut the benefits of people and destroy the nature "to save the country". I haven't figured out how harming both the land and the people will save anything (expect the personal benefits of the leaders), so I'll try to do something to save the land.

 

 

Another great bunch of Slayers, that vibrant orange for their haircuts really works out well! Good to see you bring something positive to the Wildlife of your country Teemu. 

 

Cheers Sander