It's April, so that means its time for Salute once again!!!
Postie, Lee, Steve and myself, will be joined by Dave and Chris and we'll meet up with part time Reject Mick Sayce as well. So its gonna be Posties Reject heavy (for us anyway).
I've stocked up on Painkillers and will start drugging myself up next week. I'll still feel like I've been hit by a bus at the end of the day though!
I've got a small list together and already preordered other bits, I have no plans to buy anything for a new period, but you never know if that "Ooooo shiny", moment's gonna come and bite you on the bum!
Are there any Bloggers or readers going? I'll be in my red Posties Reject t-shirt, so say hi, if you see me.
And for those who wish to come along to the Bloggers Meet up, its at the Big Red Dot at 1pm. It doesn't last long, just a quick 10-15 minutes, it'd be great to put a few faces to the names and meet up with old chums.
You may have been following mine and Lee's progress since December in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, which now has sadly come to an end.
We posted up some photos of both sets of troops from a Retreat to Moscow project in my last post, but Lee, being the creative monster that he is has compiled an all singing and dancing video, showcasing both the French and Russian armies, so if you haven't seen it already give it a click.
This year was 100%, 25/28mm, no other scale was painted up. Which to be honest was the plan. All but 1 figure (Hercules, a present for my Dad) was for the Retreat from Moscow.
This year 25/28mm figures 156 x 25mm infantry figures 19 x 25mm Cavalry figures
6 x Wagons & 1 x Sledge
In total 195 figures.
I always aim for a top 20 position, but sometimes that's impossible, due to the mega figure painters that take up the top 10 places, Graham who came top of the list, painted 4871 points worth of figures, which is just plan mental!! I think me and Lee having our own private battle, helped us both to push through the pain barrier to get stuff painted up quicker than usual. So in the end I finished with a very respectable 1299 points, leaving me in 15th place, out of the 79 left at the end of the Challenge. Its the first time I made the top 20, since Challenge 12, back in 2021, so I'm well chuffed.
Also I beat Lee, which was one of my main aims, he'll claim I only beat him because of the bonus rounds, I just used my nodle to get more points, which he could have easily done himself, so technically its his fault!
But saying that Lee came in a very good 21st place, with 1080 points, which is his 3rd ever best points total, so that's not too bad either?
Here is my record during the Challenge so far.
Challenge II 4940 points 1st Challenge III 2586 points 4th Challenge IV 1227 points 17th Challenge V 691 points 37th Challenge VI 681 points 36th Challenge VII 1093 points 24th Challenge VIII 662 points 40th Challenge IX 2274 points 8th Challenge X 1687 points 11th Challenge XI 2260 points 8th Challenge XII 2168 points 7th Challenge XIII 1111 points 27th Challenge XIV 1160 points 25th Challenge XV 1299 points 15th
Interestingly, (well for me anyway?) is this year's points total is my 7th best total, the Challenge so far, but there's a massive gap between 6 and 7th, which maybe a bridge too far in forthcoming Challenges?
1 Challenge II 4940 points 1st 2 Challenge III 2586 points 4th 3 Challenge IX 2274 points 8th 4 Challenge XI 2260 points 8th 5 Challenge X 1687 points 11th 7 Challenge XV 1299 points 15th 8 Challenge IV 1227 points 17th 9 Challenge XIV 1160 points 25th 10 Challenge XIII 1111 points 27th 11 Challenge VII 1093 points 24th 12 Challenge V 691 points 37th 13 Challenge VI 681 points 36th
14 Challenge VIII 662 points 40th
So if you've enjoyed the Challenge and fancy a go of it yourself, go visit Curt's blog, here normally in late November for more updates, the roster gets filled up very quickly, so be quick.
Lastly thanks again to everyone involved in the Challenge and I look forward to more fun and games in December.
Chasseurs of the Guard, (although Postie tells me they're not Chasseurs as they have a plate at the front of the Busby)
Me & Lee got together on Tuesday evening to bring both sides of our Retreat from Moscow project together in the Rejects Shed-o-War. Laid out on the table we are more than a little amazed at how much we have got done during the painting challenge. Once again this amazing event has stimulated our creative juices, whipped up our enthusiasm and kept our brushes whirling in a way we never normally manage to replicate at any other time of the year.
I beat Lee on points.........so we recreated that beating in front of our combined output from the Challenge!!
We've had a good long chat about our respective armies and have already made a list of extra units we want to add. We have already started making some of the terrain we want for this project and yesterday we agreed what to buy next and exchanged ideas of items we would like to see on a future battlefield. So while the frenetic pace of activity during the challenge will abate a little over the next few weeks, we are hoping to keep that enthusiasm burning throughout the year. I summed it up perfectly when I describe our efforts during the Challenge as "phase one of the project".
Its finally here, my last post of this years Challenge, I'm chuffed with all I've managed to get finished, but also gutted for what I didn't manage to get started. Including the figures in the post. My plan was to have 1 unit of 4 sledges. Perry's make 2 sledges, one walking and this one, that's running. But the 2nd running sledge, I need to complete the unit has been out of stock for ages, only coming back last week, so it scuppered my plans.
I started painting this back in January, but held off finishing it off until the other sledge turned up, but as time ran out, I thought it could be my last post.
"During the Retreat from Moscow, Colonel Marbot seeing that
his regiment, the 23rd Chasseurs a Cheval, was falling apart,
decided to dismount them, use their remaining horses to pull two-man peasant
sledges easily found in local villages. The 23rd formed up with the
24th Chasseurs a Cheval to create a sledge born brigade. At night
these formed squares which were frequently used by Marshal Ney and General
Maison for shelter. Each man was ordered to have two muskets to enable them to
I really can't wait to get a unit of these out on the tabletop. The large pill base was specially made for me by Warbases.
I've got to thank Curt and Sarah for all their hard work in putting the Challenge together and running it, also thanks to my favorite Fin Teemu, for putting up with me since December, as well as all the other Minions and fellow Challengers and commenters who helped drag me along.
As for the points 5pts for the 2 figures and horse = 15pts
and 20pts for the sledge, making 35pts altogether!
My penultimate post in this years Challenge, and guess what?
More figures my and Lee's Retreat from Moscow project!
All the figures bar 2 are from Perry Miniatures.
The Commander, second left is a Front Rank figure and is my last figure in the Challenge that has had some conversion work, I've added a small cloak and a scarf which is holding his bicorne on. The Sapper 2nd row far right is the second non Perry mini, but I'm not sure who made this figure and if he is indeed a French figures??
Any ideas???
The rest of the figures are from pack FN169 Dismounted Cavalry Skirmishing, my favourite is the chap in the middle, painted up as a Trumpeter of the Dutch Lancers of the Guard. This is what I love about this project, you get the chance to paint up figures and uniforms that you wouldn't normally do.
Then you have the red crested French Carabinier, firing 2 pistols, what a great figure to paint up!
Lastly the usual rear shot!! I wasn't going to paint up the figure sitting firing behind a fallen friend, as I'm not sure how to fit him into a unit, because of the base size?? So he might end up as a piece of scenery or perhaps an objective marker?
So to the points, 9 figures for 45pts, then 2 figures on one base, one kneeling and one laying, so I'll give in to tonight's minion to decide the final score, your never know I might even get some bonus points for the conversion work? Cough!
Tonight's Minion was the SnowLord himself Curt who very generously gave me an extra 8 points for my conversion work!!
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