AHPC XIV: From MikeW: 28mm Polish Dragoons & WoR, Emperor's Guard Space Marines plus other bits and pieces

 Hopeflly I will not overload or wonderful minions but as we enter the last weekend of painting, I'll be putting posts into a 'Ready' status as and when I get a good batch of figures completed! Thank You Minions! 😀

Polish figures for my Siege of Vienna project

So today  have a group of Polish soldiers who would have been at the relief of the Siege of Vienna in 1683. There are two mounted figures, an light cavaltyman with a hand axe plus a drummer, who can be added into any suitable dragoon regiment as I but this together. Additionally we have a command base - again likely to be used as dismounted dragoons.

Dragoon Drummer

Dragoon Officer, armed with an axe!

 These guys have the distinctive dragoon and infantry uniforms of some of my existing collection - red trousers with blue knee length jackets, often with red braiding on the chest. Figures were all undercoated in white and then painted in much the same way as most of the others I have described this challenge.

Dragoon command on foot, Officer, Standard and Musketeer

The flag is a generic Polish banner, of the period, taken from the internet.

Another view

Next up, I have a lonely Mexican Grenadier, waiting to join his comrades in my Alamo collection. I found this lonely soul, in my drawer the other day so decided to paint him up. 

A lonely Mexican Grenadier figure found at the bottom of my drawers,
now ready to join his comrades at the Alamo!

Front view!

Next a couple of 40K Space Marines, these are for my new Emperor's Guard Chapter that I have been toying with building an army for. A few months back, as an experiment, I asked the Chat GPT AI site to generate a Space Marines Chapter for me. This is what they came up with  (see here for more details).

I'm putting this down as a test figure,
not overly happy with the way the paint has finished on this guy

Saw earlier today that a recommended undercoat for purple is green!
Will need to give that a try!

So I have done a standard Marine plus his Terminator 'Big Brother' to accompany him

Happier with this big boy, note skull on base
but may come back to this to do some more detail and weathering

Also maybe need to do something with the power fist!

Now a cheeky one pointer for a piece of terrain, a Bretonnian brazier!

Smoking brazier...

My final work for this year's challenge is a group of 31 x Perry plastic War of the Roses 28mm figures, painted to represent part if the retinue of Sir Robert Whittington, in their distinctive green and white livery.

All 31 figures as they enter the battlefield

The group includes 9 x Archers, 5 x Crossbowmen, 8 x Handgunners and 9 x Men-at-Arms, Standard Bearer & Musician etc.

The 9 x Archers, most in livery jackets

Close-up of right of line

And close-up of the left of line

All were undercoated in an 'oatmeal' colour - exact colour is hard to determine as I used hobby paints for this job! I then drybrushed the figures white and concentrated on faces and hands to get a smooth white finish. Skin had GW Darkoath Flesh applied before being highlighted with Army Painter Barbarian Flesh. All metalwork was painted with GW Leadbelcher and then the livery jackets were painted in with white and green halves.

8 x Musketeers

Another close-up

And again

I added various colours to block in leggings, sleeves etc before using a cream colour to paint in padded jackets etc, these were washed with GW Agrax Earthshade for depth and shading.

5 x Crossbowmen

The crossbow arms on these guys came from an Oathmark figure pack, I think!

Armour was washed with Nuln Oil and all other materials were give an Agrax Earthshade wash before varnishing.

Command and Men-at-Arms

Musician and a couple of extra guys

Figures were all based in my usual manner  on old US 1 cent or European 2c coins which are the same size!

Three armoured Men-at-Arms

Sir Robert Whittington with his standard and another family member

So there it is hopefully enough work to get me over the 3,000 point level - something I didn't think I'd have time for this year. Thanks to all the minions and other participants for making this another great challenge and yet again Grahame H. outscores me, the man is a painting machine!

AHPC XIV - From Grahame H: 15mm Napoleonic Polish Foot Artillery

 PANIC!

Just remembered I haven’t sent in my first entry, and i am in a bit of a hurry as about to go to work. Anyhow, my first entry this year is a battery of Polish Foot Artillery. The figures are AB. I am just in the process of finishing off this army, with just a Horse Battery and a regiment of Uhlans left. Hopefully, they will be posted shortly.

AHPC XIV - From MikeW: Warhammer 40k Tau, Fantasy Savage Orcs and various 28mm Figures

 I've switched my focus back to the Tau as I have now completed 5 x trooopers, 1 x drone, 3 x Stealth Fighters and 2 x Crisis Battlesuits. All with the same white and Orange theme that I piloted in my first post of the challenge.

Two Tau Fighters in Crisis Suits,
large Sci-Fi mechs, with varied weapons load-outs 

Rear view of the same

Close-up of one of the Tau Mechs.

...and the other one.

The three Stealth Suit Fighters have benefited from being slightly larger models that the standard Tau Troopers, this made the pinlining of the armour panels much easier to do and I'm pleased with the results. Again these guys have the same white armour, painted in the same manner as previously described, with random orange panels, the only item that remains constant  is that all models will have a left knee pad that is orange.

Three Tau warriors in Stealth Suits,
these are similar is size to old school Space Marine Terminators

These guys each carry a heavy weapon in their left hand and have various load-outs on their back packs and antenna as required.

Reverse view of the Tau Stealth Warriors

The Crisis Suit Fighters are the smallest of the Tau 'Big Mechs' and these two were sourced from eBay and came pre-made with the load-outs that you can see. Again these figures were undercoated in a grey and then dry-brushed light grey and then white before applying several white glazes to bring out the highlights.

Business end of a Large Plasma Gun

Again the panel lining is easier due to their size but also due to their size tere are alot more panels to line! The black is done with GW Black Templar contrast paint, whlist the panel lines are GW Aggrax Earthshade.

Reverse side of the other Mech, with a combat Force Field shield

The weapons on each figure vary, I believe each can have upto 4 weapons attached to their 'hardpoints' but each has only three. (I may add more later as I build p a supply of spares).

Tau Droid to spport the additional Tau Troopers

Regarding Points, I have counted the Stealth Suit Warriors as regular 28mm figures, my logic being these are similar to Space Marine Terminators who get scored that way and also counted the drone as a regular figure as well. For the Crisis Suit figures I have counted these as 28mm vehicles, as they are considerably bigger than regular figures - I have seen similar in posts to older challengers but happy to be corrected if that oversteps the mark.

Tau Trooper section with a Gue'Vesa on the left 

Size comparison of Crisis Suit, Stealth Suit and regular Tau Trooper

The other items that I have been working on are a first batch of Savage Orcs, the first six figures of a twenty strong unit, which I'll hopeflly finish in the next week or so.

First six Savage Orcs, of a twety strong nit that I'm working on!

These guys were again sourced on eBay and they were a ready made totally unpainted unit with a few figures needing a bit of TLC to either complete their construction or put back together where they had broken. 

Close-up od three of the Savage Orcs

These are essentially wild Orcs, with very few clothes on them except for the skins of various beasts that they have slain. These figures are heavy on bone weapons and body ornamentation and again disappointinly sparce on skulls, only two in this first batch!

The painting method was essentially the same as in my last post bit with the lack of clothing to distract the eye, the skin has appeared to retain a very vivid green hue. I have offset the skin with alot of attention to the bone and this was achieved with an ivory paint job, washed with GW Skeleton Horde and the highlighted with more Ivory and then White.

The remaining three, just 2 skulls between them all!

I opted for the Lizard skin clothing to be blue, so this is an Army Painter Blue Speed paint, then dry brushed with a sky blue before being washed with a dark blue ink to pull the colours together.

Finally I have also completed a few 28mm figures for some of my historical interests. Of these I have 5 x Interwar British Infantry, these are Wargames Atlantic plastics, built to represent a faction in a proposed Very British Civil War (VBCW) collection that I'll put together. Some older readers may remember I have done VBCW figures in 20mm previously - but I have decided to go big and swap to 28mm for future figures.

Five Man Infantry Squad, Lewis Gunner on left,
next to his No.2, then two riflemen and an officer.

There is an officer, 3 riflemen and a Lewis Gunner, these guys were undercoated in white, painted with a watered down khaki and webbing and packs in a light brown. I'll claim a Squirrel point for these guys! Hopefully I'll find time to do some more as the challenge progresses.

Another view of the Interwar Infantrymen

Last figure this week is a Polish Late17th Century Foot Officer, armed with a two handed sword, he is destined to command a Polish infantry regiment in my Siege of Vienna collection.

Polish Officer, with two handed sword,
ready to lead a his nit

Mixed Batch of Figures - Dark Age Cavalry, Polish Renaissance, Wild West, WW2 & ECW, all 28mm

Well its been quite some time since my last post - real life havng caught up with me, organising & celebrating my Dad's 90th Birthday, helping my son and his family move house (still ongoing) and keeping on top of a busy work schedule and helping run a local sports club!

Anyway here is a bunch of stuff that I have got painted and completed over the last few weeks but not havd time to 'show and tell'. Overall not my greatest work but at least I've got things moving again....

All the Dark Ages Cavalry in one line!

First up are 11 x 28mm Dark Age cavalry, these are being presented as Norman allied cavalry or even as mounted Anglo-Saxon warriors - I have tred to keep the iconography neutral (as far as possibe) to give that flexibility.

Norman Allied Leader, Conquest GAmes figure on a Wargames Atlantic Horse.

The reverse view, showing shield

The group contains a leader plus a standard bearer, as well as nine other fgures armed with a variety of hand weapons ranging form swords, axes, javelins and spears. There is also a guy with a lance nad pennant.

Two more Conquest Games figures on Wargames Atlantic horses.
Both have been given kite shields and wear leather armour. The standard is generic.

And onther view of the two figures

The leader is on a round, 40mm base, as per the rest of my collection, there are actually three plastic figures, all left over Conquest Games Normans, seated on Warlord Atlantic Horses, the other figures are all metal and from a batch of Dark Age Cavalry I sourced form eBay at a reasonable price.

First three of the metal eBay batch

The metal figures have been suplmented with platic shields and a variety of metal and plastic weapons. The eagled eyed amongst you will see that I have base two figures together of a single base - a departure from my usual approach but a neccessity resulting from a very weak end to the javelein in the hands of the figure on the left - basing them together willl hopefully protect it a bit from my (and other's) sausage fingers!

These guys are all unarmoured and have a variety of weapons as well as kite & round shields.

Not the greatest picture, central guy is the one with a weak javelin
so I glued hime to a shared base with another figure, t tryand give it potection

These figures have been given a mix of kite and round shields, to give a feel of Norman influence on the more well off warriors but a reliance on older kit by the less fortunate.

A clearer view of the shared double base and the offending javelin

These guys will make an apperance at Stamford Bridge!

Final two figures

And final view!

Next we have two Polish Officers to be used in my Vienna 1673 games, they were again sourced from eBay at a bargain proce and you can never have enough Poles on the tabletop.

The two Polish leaders

I refrained from adding wings to these guys, prefering the to be able to be used as more regular cavalry, one is unarmoured and brandishing a pretty mean looking mace, whlist the other is armoured but is checking a scratch built map.  The map being used to cover an unfortunate cut into the horse's neck line.

And another view

Next up is a test figure from the Wargames Atlantic Panzer Lehr sprue that came free on the front of September's MinatureWargames magazine. I'm pretty pleased how he has turned out and I'm going to build a few more figures to join him.

Warlord Games Panzer Lehr figure, changing magazines on his MP40

Next are two venerable Warlord Games ECW pikemen, I have a bunch of these fully armoured fellows and I plan to build these into a small unit as and when I get time. I chose a light blue uiform for them but will likely try other colour conbinations for the remaining guys.

Two fully aroured and uniformed pikemen, ready to repel cavalry!

The reverse view

Lastly we have four Wild West townsfolk from Wargames Foundry, these have been lanquising in my loft, garage and/or workbech for far too many years and I felt it was time to finally get them done. I'll hand them over to join Mike N's vast 25/28mm Wild West collection as soon as I get a chance to go to a club night again!

Some fairly well armed Wild West townsfolk

Three Winchesters and a Shotgun, heavy firepower if they are able to aim straight!

That's it for now - hopefully not such a long wait for the next post!