Friday Night Games: Boer War - Relief of Ladysmith 1899

Friday 6th April saw the first of two weeks fighting of John's 15mm Boer War award game. Figures are from John's collection and we used the "By Jingo!" rule set, the game was staged at Rupert's venue.

The Boer forces were commanded by Rupert  Dave and Mat, whilst Steve, Phil and Mike W played the plucky British attackers.

The scenario was a recreation of Boer actions that attempted to delay British relief of the Siege of Ladysmith in 1899.

Boer camp / field hospital

Mounted Infantry Battalion and supportng guns on British right flank

Bitish Artillery supporting centre right Infantry Brigade

Naval guns agvancing slowly centre right

British Center advances

Centre Left, British infantry brigade advancing on enemy held hills

British Centre

Boer forces hold hills on their left

And same on Boer left

Another view, with Field Hospital to rear

Close-up of JOhn's Boer Figures

Boer 'Long Tom' gun and commanders in their Centre rear

German Legion fighting with the Boers

British attack closes with Boers on the British left flank

Friday Night Games: Romans v Sassanids

This was the latest in a series of two games played over two weeks, (22nd & 29th March), pitting Rupert's 28mm Sassanid army against his Late Roman Army.

The game used Rupert's well respected ancient rules and was also hosted by him. Week One saw Mat, Phil and Steve play the Sassinids, whilst John and Dave played the Romans.

After a swift Roman loss in week one, sides were swapped with Mat, Steve and Phil play the Romans, whilst Mike W, Mike N and Dave played the Sassinids, who won equally quickly in week two!

AHPC XIV: From GrahameH - Italian and Swiss Wars

 Well this will be my last post for this year. I would like to thank all those that have organised and run the challenge again this year. 

So my last post consists of some more Italian Wars (15mm Essex Figures) and a Swiss Pike block for the Burgundian Wars.

Papal Pike Block (48 Essex 15mm figures)

Papal Crossbow Unit (16 Figures)

Papal Arquebus Skirmish Line (9 Figures)

Papal Foot Unit (24 Figures). Probably a bit too red and uniformed

Finally, another Swiss Pike Block from the Schwyz Canton (48 Figures)

So, that's it until next year. Thanks again to everyone for making it an enjoyable challenge. 

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!