AHPC Fellowship Bonus Round

My submission for the fellowship round is a band of nine intrepid fantasy adventurers - three fighters, an archer, a mage, a healer two thieves and a ranger.  Oh and they are also seven mice, a shrew and a gecko!

Here's the full set, although a couple of the shy ones are hiding in the back row.  I'll see if I can draw them forth shortly.  These miniatures come in Red Hat's board game Mice & Mystics and its expansion Downwood Tales.  The game features a royal (Human) household that overtaken by an evil sorceress and the heroes change themselves into mice to escape.    long the way they battle cockroaches, rats, centipedes and spiders (including their human enemies who also morph themselves).  It is a surprising good play, with simple rules,  great story line scenarios, a good challenge and lots of nice colour.  The currency is cheese, there's a ring of cat strength magic item and triggering a mouse trap means that your mouse both takes a hit and gets a cheese.  Better yet you can find a dinner fork and mouse-a-pult yourself over danger.

Tilda, Colin, Maginose

First up we have the leader, Price Colin in his red cloak flanked by his counsellors Tilda the healer and Maginos the mystic.  Tilda also fights with a nasty mace and gets more deadly if she's defending wounded comrades.  Maginos has his familiar wyvern Meeps who's been transformed into a lady bug.

Filch, Nez, Lily

Next up we have the royal armourer Nez, flanked by Filch the scamp and Lily the archer. Nez is a tinkerer (which is sometimes useful) and a warrior which is always useful especially when he uses his Thundersqueak ability.  Lily has always been a mouse and is a member of a local mouse clan that Colin befriends.  We meet her in one of the early scenarios when they rescue her from a mousetrap.

Jakobe, Ansel, Ditty

The last set of three are characters that we will meet in the expansion game as Colin and fiends venture into Downwood.  As with Lily, these characters have always been critters.  Jakobe the gecko is their guide and carries a boomerang.  He looks chatty and may try and sell us car insurance.  Ansel is a valiant mouse warrior and wears a serpent scale breastplate.  Ditty the shrew is a scamp.  She carries a peppercorn sling and a fiddle.

I'm not sure if Sarah's Challenge includes only human characters.  But there are three female anthropomorphic rodents in this groups so I've tagged them any way.  Here are the three ladies in question, Mother Hen Tilda, Adventurous Lily and well keep a hand on your valuables Ditty.

Final group shot.

FYI when we play M&M, I play Tilda, Curt plays Filch, Sylvain is Nez, Jeremey is Maginos and Stacey is Colin.

Points wise these figures are shorter than 28s and taller than 20s.  I'll leave it to the gods and GMs to work out my points

AHPC Curtgeld

Lighting's not the best.  I may need to touch up the facial details too, he's looking too mono-hued here.

Time to pay the piper, so here's my Curtgeld for the Ninth Challenge.  He's an officer from the French Dillon Regiment from the SYW.  The figure is by Front Rank and I really love the pose with hat off and sword out.

Front Figures paint up very nicely.  The raised buttons and lace work are very much appreciated.

Dillon's was a famous regiment in the 18th century, part of the Irish brigade formed after the Glorious Revolution (or War of English Succession depending).  recruitment cam originally from Irishmen wanting to change the British Monarchy back to a Catholic Jacobite, although the percentage of actual Irishmen diminished over time.  The colonelcy passed down through the family and many officers were Dillon's themselves. After valiant service in the Wars of English, Spanish, Polish and Austrian Succession, the SYW and the AWI, it was disbanded after the French Revolution.  Incredibly some officers then formed Emigre Dillon's regiments paid by George III and serving with the British.  So Irishmen who joined the Irish Army to overthrow George III, ended up serving George III to defeat a Republic and reinstall the Bourbons.  The intellectual contortions required for this defy me.

Beyond the regular Curtgeld tradition, there is another challenge tradition that seems to have fallen by the wayside over time.  There have been several cases of Challengers Curtgelding Cut with figures representing Bob Dylan, despite (or perhaps because of) Curt's fervent anti-Dylan hatred.  To rectify the recent tailing off of the tradition, I therefore present Robert (Bob) Dillon as my Curtgeld for this challenge.

By my count this will take me over my 500 point Challenge Target with 3 weeks left to go.  This figure also adds 5 points to my BP side duel total,

AHPC Nassuers and Command Stand

I continue to be a one hit wonder here with my ongoing progress on the SYW project.  I have two items in this post.

I can't remember which are the 8 newly painted figures, so here's the full 24 man battalion

First up are the final 8 members of the Nassau Prince Louis Regiment, completing the regiment that formed my Mercenary Bonus round post. Here's the full 24 man battalion, all Front Rank figures with flags printed at home based on images found at Kronoskaf.

Generally the French Army's foreign infantry regiments seem to have been better rated than the native french regiments.  The reasons differed by nationality with the Swiss being professionals and the Irish being more Anti-British.  I suspect with the German regiments it was due to the officers, as these regiments offered opportunities for ambitious gentlemen who might not meet the criteria (French speaking and Catholic) required for the "French" regiments.  It is worth noting that the two premier french generals prior to the SYW (Maurice and Berwick) were both foreign and both bastard sons of foreign Kings.

Close up to show the unit tables at the back of the basing.

A quick note on unit organization.  I've opted for 24 man foot units with 12 man cavalry and 16-18 man light infantry units.  For the formed regiments I've put a unit table on each base to keep the regiments straight, with the unit name and a small pic of their flag.  This should especially aid the  French army which should have  many infantry units in grey/white.  I have of course got 4 French regiments in 4 different uniforms and only one wearing white to date.

From the other side of the hill, we have Ferdinand of Brunswick and escort.  The allied army in western Germany was a truly polyglot affair,  mostly Hanoverian with contingents from Britain, Hesse, Brunswick and Prussia and generals from Brunswick who were also Prussian officers.  Since the Brits paid for the whole thing it was known as His Britannic Majesty's Army in Germany.

Ferdinand of Brunswick was lent to HBMAG by Frederick the Great in late 1757 following the Duke of Cumberland's epic defeat at Hastenbeck and the overrunning of Hanover by French armies.  Ferdinand quick turned things about with a strong campaign that saw him move from east of the Elbe to west of the Rhine in 1758.  He followed this up with a major Victory at Minden in 1759 and kept the army in the game for the rest of the war.

He's accompanied by one of Prussia's Black Hussars, one of several Prussian cavalry regiments serving in Western Germany.  This is the third time I've painted this uniform, and in the third scale.  In high school in the 70s I put French Shakos on Airfix British Hussars to do the regiment in 20mm Nappy's.  In the 80s I had the regiment in my 15mm SYW army, and it served well in some truly epic wargames.  Both figures are Front Rank 28mm and paint up very nicely.  Front Rank does a very good job with making the lace work standout and thus easy to paint.  I also like the horses, which are large look powerful.

By my count that's 8 foot at 5 points a pop, and two cavalry at 10 points each for 60 points.  These will count towards both me total and the BP duel (although that point is moot given the lead Alex has built).

Regiment Nassau Prince Louis

It's the Mercenary Bonus Round over at the Painting Challenge, please go have a look at al of the lovely work here.  My submission is below.

For the Mercenary Bonus Round I have a German Regiment from the French Army in  Seven Years War.  There are 16 members of the Nassau Prince Louis Regiment, using 28mm Front Rank figures.  Napoleonic wargamers will be familiar with Nassauers who fought for the French in the Peninsula, and then against the French in the 100 days campaign.  Under the Ancient Regime, the french army raised a number of foreign regiments, which were in many cases considered better than the native French regiments.  Not being French citizens, I think that these can qualify as Mercenaries.

Swiss, Irish, Scots, Italian, German and Walloon regiments all served in the Western Germany in the SYW.  Recruitment and organisation varied according to the nationality, but many of the German regiments came from the Palatinate region of western Germany, including this regiment from the Nassau area.  This Regiment started as the Nassau-Saarbruck regiment until it merged with the Nassau-Ussinghen Regiment in 1758, becoming the Nassau regiment whose colonel was Prince Louis of Nassau (I'm not sure which line as the history, naming and ruling houses of minor German states is convoluted).

I quite like the office with the spontoon.  I gave him a non-regulation red waistcoat, which is a hold over from their pre-1758 uniform.

You can see where the "spare" Grenadier figures from my last unit went.  Unlike "French" regiments, "German" regiments had no separate Grenadier companies rather each company had a section of Grenadiers.  Gotta love the flags for this army.

I don't think I've ever painting a figure this orange before, at least not intentionally.  Base coat is Grumbacher Vermilion with over washes (dark red and black?)

Like many German regiments in French service, they wore blue uniforms, in this case faced red.  The House of Nassau is related to the House of Orange, as can be seen with their flags and drummer's liveries.  Like Dutch fans at the World Cup or Olympic Speed Skating oval, the drummers wear ORANGE!   I took a couple of liberties on uniform details, so button counters be forewarned.  The Front Rank figures came with collars, while the Nassau uniform did not until after the SYW.  Had I caught it earlier I would have trimmed the collars off but I didn't catch this until about half way through the painting process, and went with red collars as I thought it looked nice.  Also the drummer should possibly have red lapels under the lace (the figures had none but lots of lace) and orange breeches (just caught this one now).  However, SYW uniforms weren't regulated as much as later periods and I figure a to would depend on local supply and colonel's whim.  Neither the drummer not the collars look out of place, so I'm good with them.

I also like the NCO pointing.

So that's 16 28mm foot figures plus two flags is 82 points plus bonus round points.  There's another 8 Nassuaers on the work bench to bring the unit up to standard complement of 24, but they'll have to wait a week or so.

Grenadiers de France

For this week, I have completed the full battalion of the Grenadiers de France for my Seven Years War project.  There are 22 foot and one mounted in the battalion, but 8 of the footmen appeared earlier in the Challenge, so the count for this week is 14 infantry plus one mounted officer.  Figures are 28mm from Front Rank.  I really like the Front Rank figures but they do suffer from monopose for the rank and file.  However, the monopose works for the SYW since the uniforms have an old fashioned toy soldier feel.

The Grenadiers de France were formed after the War of Austrian Succession from the grenadier companies from several regiments that were disbanded at that time.  They followed a different organization than most French infantry regiments being formed into "brigades" instead of battalions and were heavily engaged in the campaigns in Western Germany.

While the regular French regiments wore white, the Grenadiers wore blue coats with red lapels and white lace.  They also were the first to wear the bearskin grenadiers cap which became popular with many regiments during the SYW.  The combination of their droopy moustaches and braided coats with the pose of these Front Rank figures reminds me greatly of.....

Musical and fashion icon Floyd Pepper

I bought a battalion pack of 24 foot from Front Rank, but swapped out two foot figures for a mounted officer.  Front Rank included two standard bearers while the Grenadiers (again just to be different from regular regiments) carried only the Ordonnance colour and did not carry a Colonel's colour.  I have a home for he other standard bearer and grenadier private and spare officer fits nicely, as he looks done the line.  The flag itself was downloaded from the Kronoskaf site, manipulated in Preview and then printed at home.

So by my math, that's 14 foot plus one mounted officer plus 1 flag = 81 points, for both my total score and the Black Powder side duel.

28mm MDF Buildings from Sarissa For SYW

The two new buildings.  The figures were completed before the challenge

La Belle Alliance in the rear, cart shed to the left and farmhouse to the right.

Much to my own surprise I have stuff to post this week, and am in fact holding back on figures that I could post saving them for next week.  Plus I've made in roads into projects for each of the next three bonus rounds.  This happens when one's kid is in grad school; and one's wife is across the country looking after a mother post surgery.

What I am going to post this week is two more of the marvellous 28mm mdf kits from Sarissa precision.  These will feature in my Seven Year's War project for Western Germany

Close up of cart shed, the interior wall is half timbered with brick fill, basically it's a cut down version of the end wall.

First up is the Cart Shed from their English Timber Framed range.  It bears a close family resemblance to the farm house that I posted last week and painted up just as nicely. My only mod was to once again add black card stock to the windows to hide what's inside, although the wide open barn doors leave less to the imagination.  These doors also left me a challenge as the etched detail on one interior wall is clearly visible from outside.  I put the kit together in a wild rush of excitement and perhaps should have painted the interior walls first, but I think I managed to make it all look OK.  

Backside of the cart shed.  Should probably do a quick wash over the brickworks.

Next up is the La Belle Alliance Inn from field of Waterloo, and from Sarissa's Old Europe range .  They've done a number of buildings from Waterloo and I quite fancy the Chateau at Papelotte and the Church at Placenoit for future projects.  My model is both south east of Flanders and in a different linguistic zone, so I have google translated the name to Die Schon Allianz.  No mods other than the black card stock and different colours of paint, although I did include the optional shutters and a sign.

Die Schon Allianz, again needed a wash on the bricks

I ran possible names past StefanK, and he noted that French wikipedia says that the name refers to a marriage between a beautiful young woman and the grumpy old owner.  Meanwhile English wikipedia notes that the woman acquired the ownership of the tavern and two other buildings via inheritance from 3 of her 4 husbands!  I did up the sign on card stock featuring Hogarth print from his Before and After series, it seemed to fit. 

Quite happy with the sign but need to regale bottom right corner

These two buildings were painted from bare mdf with out priming, I find that if I maintain a light touch the mdf gives interesting textures through the paint.  I've also had discussions with Sarissa on the whole prime/don't prime debate.  They say that the detail will hold up unless I apply the primer with a trowel and that they've been known to get a kit painted up badly and then prime it and repaint it without losing details.  Good to know, but I'm not planning to try that!

This shot shows that the roofs lift off and that the two timber framed ones have upper floors that also life out (note the cut out on the upper left corner)

Upper floors lifted out.  The rafter system is very good.  Note that the cart shed's interior wall is only on the ground floor.

I converted the dimensions on the Sarissa sight to king's noses and the math shows that Die Schonn Allianz is 194/216=90% and the cart shed is 98/216=45% of a cubic terrain unit respectively.  The Hessian Erbprinz Regiment was completed just before this challenge and I think started just at the end of the last challenge!  I finally got around to adding unit labels and flags and they have yet to appear in the blogosphere as a finished unit.

Byron and Curt were asking about the scale of the buildings so have two shots with Hessian Erbprinz Regiment to show that they look good with 28s.

SYW French Grenadiers and Command

No posts last week, but two in for this week.  Wife's away looking after her mum following surgery so production will be up for the next couple of weeks I hope.

Curt says he enjoys gamer bios, so here goes.  It all stated in a 5000 watt radio station... (two brownie points if you get the reference).  I started gaming as a teenage about 1975,  with Airfix Waterloo kits badly painted in Humbrols.  I paint almost exclusively historical stuff, but will play Fantasy of SciFi when someone else puts on a game.  A big part of the attraction is the research aspect of the hobby - I like ferreting out info on uniforms, OOBs and tactics from bygone ages.  Even if I was attracted to non-historical figures, picking up a "Codex" over history books would be a deal killer for me.

I grew up in Halifax NS and was a long time gaming partner of RossM of Battle Game of the Month who is likely known to many Challenge participants.  I relocated out west to Regina about 20 years ago and for a long time was a solo gamer due to lack of opponents.     Back in 2011 I followed Ross' lead and ventured into the Blogosphere with the Single Handed Admiral, a reference to the fact that I was going solo, planned to due naval gaming and that Nelson had only one hand.  Blogging got me in touch with gamers around the world, and then a year later with gamers 2kms from my doorstep as Sylvain reached out via Curt's blog having noted my email address.  The naval projects turned out to be a dead end and have been put on hold, but I've enjoyed working on Italian Wars and Seven Years Wars projects over the last few challenges.

Over the years it been a bumpy ride but I'm mostly in a good place now and enjoying my time at the painting table and on the Challenge.  I've adopted the simple philosophy voiced below.

Grenadiers in front of the structures from my first post.

OK off with the blather and on with the painting.  I've got 8 French Infantry from the Grenadiers de France from the SYW.  Figures are 28mm Front Rank and are very nice. This is the initial set of 8 from a planned battalion of 24 so I'll natter on more about the unit on later posts.

I also have a French command stand of two figures, general and trumpeter.  The general is  Casting Room figure on a Front Rank horse.  The rider had me perplexed as to his provenance for a while but then I worked out that I an extra dragoon officer (with no horse) in my Casting Room order.  Luckily, SYW uniforms are more flexible than for later periods and panting him in a blue coat laced with gold did the trick.  His trumpeter is a Front Rank figure as is his horse.  I painted him as coming from one of the myriad of cavalry regiments using the King's livery,

For the tally man, these are 8 28mm figures on foot plus two cavalry nets me 60 points on the scoreboard and on the Black Powder Challenge.