Test of Honour Factions

The first lot of figures I bought for Test of Honour were from Perry Miniatures. I thought they looked nice and painted up a standard Samurai faction.

Hero, Companions and Ashigaru Spearmen:

Ashigaru Archers and Musketeers:

I must admit to being a bit disappointed with these, they don't look great I think and in the end I just quickly finished them off to use them.

Next I got some of the actual ToH miniatures, the 'Rogues and Ruffians' box. Considerably more expensive than the Perry figures but given that you don't need that many figures not that bad (I'd certainly not build an army out of them!).

The 'Widow', the 'Wanderer', the 'Witch' and the 'Bruiser':

The 'Drunkard', the 'Archer', the 'Paymaster' and the 'Signaller':

These are great figures and unlike the Perry ones I'm very pleased with them, they have a lot of character and some fun specific rules for each one. Definitely worth the extra cost!

Finally a few villagers to populate the table, these are from Perry as well:

Enough for a game completed now. I have the ToH Sohei Monks and a generic Samurai box to paint, again while expensive they are really nice figures and should look good when finished.

 

Sharp Practice Peninsular British finished!

The last unit of the Peninsular British is finished, the Perry Miniatures plastic 14th Light Dragoons:

I also thought I might as well finish the last three Infantry figures:

So that's the whole force finished now. I'm not sure they have come out as well as the French and Austrians did and, unless I enter a competition, I can't see me adding to them. Hopefully I'll get a game with them sooner or later.

Sharp Practice Peninsular British

The 28mm British Peninsular force for Sharp Practice continues to make progress with some more infantry finished.

Two more groups of Line Infantry with a couple of Ensigns (no flag yet!) and a mounted officer:

The second group of 95th Rifles with an officer and sergeant:

All there is left to do now is the Light Dragoons and an additional foot officer plus a drummer and another (probably unnecessary) sergeant.

Unlike everything else I paint I'm not sure how I will get a game with these (other than entering a competition) as no one has a suitable French Napoleonic force to oppose them apart from me!

Sharp Practice Peninsular British

The final figures off the painting bench are a group of 28mm British Line plus a Serjeant for my Sharp Practice Napoleonic Peninsular army:

Two more groups of Line, one of Rifles and some Light Dragoons to finish for this army.

British for Sharp Practice

Partly as an extra option if I decide to play more Sharp Practice competitions and partly with the vague idea of collecting some Americans in the future to do the War of 1812 I bought a small British Peninsular force mainly from Perry Miniatures with a few extras from the ever dependable Front Rank.

So far I have enough figures to do five Line infantry groups, two Rifle groups, a single group of Light Dragoons and a Royal Horse Artillery 6pdr gun.

The first to be completed was a group of Riflemen:

I bought metal figures for these as I didn't like the four plastic ones that came with the plastic infantry. Nice figures with a lot of character.

Next up an officer and a serjeant for the Rifles:

Not being a particular fan of the 'Sharpe' books or TV series they are emphatically not Sharpe and Harper!

I decided to paint the Line infantry as the 3rd Foot (Royal East Kent Regiment), 'The Buffs'. The first group are mainly Perry metal figures with a Front Rank sergeant:

The second group are all from the Perry plastic box set with a Front Rank officer:

The final group is the RHA 6pdr gun and crew:

Again mostly Perry with two Front Rank figures to makeup the numbers.

The force is making progress and hopefully will get finished in the next few months.

28mm TYW Imperialists for FoGR

This army has come to a bit of halt at the moment due to SP, CoC and Rommel taking up my painting time. Several units have been done for it and in reality there isn't that much more to do.

The Redcoat Regiment:

The Bluecoats:

 The Violet Boys:

 Two cavalry units lead by a General:

I still need to finish at least two more cavalry units and two more infantry plus some generals and regimental guns so a little way to go yet on what was/is a long term project!

28mm French Napoleonics for Sharp Practice

This army was painted up for the recent 'Britcon' Sharp Practice competition.
I'd probably have done British or Spanish rather than French but the only entries available when I signed up was French so that was pretty much decided for me.
For the competition you had to draw up a background for your force and, having enjoyed the 'Brigadier Gerard' tales by Arthur Conan Doyle he seemed an ideal base to set the army up.
Here is the man himself, a splendid figure from Front Rank resplendent in the uniform of the 10th Hussars and commander of the force:

The figure really fits in well with the character as described in the books, every inch the proud Hussar!

Next up is a unit of Perry Miniatures plastic French Dragoons, great value as you get both mounted and dismounted figures ideal for Sharp Practice. I painted them as the 15th Regiment as the pink facings contrast well with the green jackets of the Dragoons:

As I had not played many games of SP at the time I thought I'd go for a full range of units so I added a Horse Artillery gun, again from Perry Miniatures:

The rest of the units were made up from a box of the Perry plastic French Infantry and a few extra packs from their metal range to add variety and extra numbers. One group was done as Grenadiers:

Four more groups were painted as Fusiliers: 

Two groups of  Voltigeurs completed the infantry part of the force:

Finally a physic (and his faithful dog!) was added, another Front Rank figure:

Considering that I had to paint the army fairly quickly to play in the competition I think they came out nicely and made a pleasant change from painting 15mm Napoleonic figures.

The competition was great fun with five different scenarios all with different objectives. Brigadier Gerard achieved his objective in four of the five games (in one his rash behaviour didn't pay off!) and it was interesting to see how players from other clubs approached SP. One of my friends is painting up a British force at the moment so hopefully they will get another run out in November.