Paul's Border Princes Month Four (266 points)

"Yo back up now and give a brother room
The fuse is lit and I'm about to go boom!
Mercy mercy, mercy me

Boom, shake, shake, shake the room...

 .... tick, tick, tick... BOOM!" (Let's hope that's not a HIT and a MISFIRE)

This Month I've added some heavy firepower to my Border Princes force with a Dwarf Cannon, an Empire Cannon/Mortar, and a Bright Wizard.

First up is the Puff and Slash Dwarf Cannon - this wasn't the one that was stripped and ready at the beginning of the challenge, but the Puff and Slash-ness of the sculpts demanded it be them, so into the dip they went, and I'm glad I bothered as they do fit the force much, much better than the other (more Dwarfy) Cannon and crew who will be saved for my 100% All Dorf. All the time. force.

This is a Bell Bombard from Citadel/Foundry - to be used as Cannon/Mortar depending on what the army list calls for. When planning the project I thought I had something in the lead pile suitable to use as a proxy mortar... turns out this was MUCH smaller than I remembered, and I didn't fancy paying the crazy prices for an actual Empire Mortar, so I bought something that looked somewhat suitable and combined with the rag tag crew men I'd assembled, including two slightly converted/repaired plastic Battle Masters crew, and a classic Empire Artilleryman sculpt.

I was quite chuffed with the tiny writing and diagram I manged to achieve on his note pad :)

Next up is a Foundry/Ex-Citadel 'Time Warped Wizard' who has been painted up in the army colours which suits him as a Bright Wizard. It's a characterful set of sculpts, if a bit pricey, but I enjoyed painting him... except for that damned staff which suffers from a bit of a mangled cast, and my lack of time to try any decent paint effect. In the end I opted to paint a golden orb embedded in the top as this both kept to the colour scheme but also speaks to me of a magical item at rest (as it is in the sculpt) - Gold is a good substance to have made magical staff top out of, even if it is not currently blazing with magical OSL goodness ;)

Month Four Total:

Human Cannon and 3 crew - 100 pts
Dwarf Cannon and 3 crew -110 pts
Human Wizard - 56 pts

TOTAL FOR THE MONTH: 266 pts

Except it wasn't quite all for the month! Having taken it right to the last few hours with the two Cannon, crew, and Wizard, I suddenly found myself with time to knock out one more mini as an extra. He is another characterful, Oldhammer style sculpt from the Foundry Time Warped Wizards collection, who I thought looked the part to join this force either as Quartermaster for the Baggage Train, a VIP NPC for RPG purposes, or, more practically, an extra Cannon Crew member - I like the idea of expensive pieces of ordinance being owned by enthusiastic militarily minded Nobs who then turn up with a goblet of wine to watch it being fired ;)

This is also practical as it frees up the Battle Masters Plastic Artillery Commander to act as a Unit Leader/Champion for the Crossbowmen. to make them up to a unit of ten if needed.

I still have some chunky units to complete before I will consider the challenge completed, but I at least managed to get everything left on my list based and undercoated over the Easter Holiday (about the only thing I did get painted mind you!) so fingers crossed I make it over the line.

Bon courage all.'