Back to the Dark Ages

Greetings Gentle Reader,

Ok, so this is what happened: I was in a charity shop recently and spotted this audiobook on cd:

...for the princely sum of £3. I read a lot - I've read this particular novel twice (as I have all the Uhtred books), but it occurred to me that this could prove an excellent companion to my journeys up and down the M27, A3, M25, A1(M), and indeed the dreaded A32.
And so it proved. I thoroughly enjoyed Jamie Glover's characterisation, and the battle scenes really came to life.

This eventually (in my tortoise-like brain) led to me considering my collection of Dark Ages figures, an eclectic mix of manufacturers but still vaguely impressive en masse. I decided to beef up their numbers, and replace some of those I'm not particularly happy with (some of those Gripping Beast poses are very odd....), with a view to using them for a Dark Age variant of Lion Rampant.

I ordered a bunch of bits from Crusader Miniatures via North Star, and (a first for me) tried a couple of packs of Drabant Figures from Old Glory. They were delivered within days (well done Old Glory!) and are lovely little items:

 

 

 

They look to need minimal cleaning up, so I shall get them assembled and based today and await my North Star order before painting them all in one go.

 

Anyway - Happy Easter to you all! I'm off to search for this particular Easter Bunny:

 

 

 

 

Until next time.....

 

 



 

Lion Rampant Ongoing Progress

Just in case you thought I had abandoned my Lion Rampant plans, I managed to complete the unit of mounted men-at-arms for my Wars of the Roses force. Not my best work by a long shot, but suitable for the tabletop. These plastic Perry Miniatures are very nice figures and complement the metal range of miniatures.

They aren't varnished yet, which should stop them looking quite so garish. My normal routine is a coating of purity seal, then a light spray of army painter's anti-shine. I may have to then 'brighten up' the armour elements with gloss varnish (or possibly satin). All advice welcome!

I will decorate the bases of all the troops once they're completed, I normally do a lot of figures in one go as I find it easier. Usual sequence is mixed sand/rocks, painted Burnt Umber, drybrushed gradually with Desert Yellow and Skeleton Bone. I then add some static grass, plus grass clumps and tufts from various manufacturers.



Until next time...............

Planning Ahead

Whilst I'm having fun with my Wars of the Roses figures, I am also looking ahead to next year - I happen to know I am getting some early medievals for Christmas from the Current Wife, so I thought I would see what I had in the Shed of Delights in order to add to them in order to create a couple of retinues for Lion Rampant from the period 1250 - 1400 approximately - Scottish Wars of Independence, the Barons War, Conquest of Wales etc. - You get the picture.
Problem is I am a bit of a scale Nazi, and like my troops to suit each other on the tabletop if you see what I mean.

So I dug out miniatures from Perry, Ebob, Fireforge and Crusader for a bit of a comparison:

L to R: Ebob, Perry, Fireforge.

L to R: Crusader, Fireforge, Perry.



Whilst I can live with the Fireforge plastic figure being slightly smaller than the others (even with the outsize base - What was I thinking of?!), the Ebob figure unfortunately doesn't cut the mustard.
This is unfortunate on two counts. Firstly Ebob's Rebellion miniatures are some of the nicest ever sculpted, but they only blend well with themselves (and possibly GW's Lord of the Rings range). Secondly I have a fair few of them, but not enough to make two retinues! I may keep the personality figures, but will probably put the rest on ebay in the new year.
Generally Perry, Fireforge and Crusader will live together happily on the tabletop, to my mind. From memory Foundry were a little too small too, although I didn't have any to hand to check.

Eagle-eyed regular readers will have spotted that instead of black undercoat I am experimenting with grey. I am not convinced of its merits yet, but will report back later.

I am about to post out my Santa Clause and Secret Santa gifts, so that's another little job out of the way.


Until next time........

Work on the WOTR continues

Managed another couple of hours last night:

 

The pikemen are now almost finished. I also inked the mounted men-at-arms:

 

 

 

Other news: This morning the postman delivered a mysterious package marked 'Secret Santa'. 

 

 

This turned out not to be my 'official' Secret Santa gift, but an unexpected present from fellow blogger Roy. Like a numpty I totally missed the instructions (Do not open until 25th December) and plunged straight in. What was inside? Stay tuned to find out!

 

 

Until next time.........



Paint Table Yesterday Continued

Work continues apace on the WOTR retinues for Lion Rampant. Unlike Wargaming Girl I welcomed the wet weather as it gifted me a day indoors at the painting table, so I made the most of it! These are the Burgundian Pikemen I chose to warm up on, before tackling the core units of each retinue.
They are obviously based on the excellent painted examples on Saxon Dog's Blog.

 

 

They have been shaded, so it's time to start building up the colours again towards the final finish. I also painted the lances on the mounted troops. I went for bold colours, and they look quite striking.

 

 

Hopefully I'll get some more work done in the evenings this coming week.

 

 

Until next time........

 

 

PTS (without the paint...) and more Perry Plastics

Paint Table Saturday came and went without the paints coming out of storage due to a combination of work commitments and ill-health. Nonetheless I managed to get the rest of the 'extras' for Lion Rampant ready:

Six mounted men-at-arms and twelve mercenary pikemen. These are ready for undercoating (if the weather ever improves) although the mounted leader's horse needs rebuilding as I'm unhappy with how I've configured the horse's armour - Scanning the web it appears it's not just me who's had trouble. It's an issue of marrying up the front plates with each other and having the moulded strap supports finish in the right place.

I also completed a small piece of scenery - the Perry open wagon for the same period:

 

 

The corks in the background will enable me to paint the knights once they've had pins inserted somewhere in their anatomy. Of all the plastics I've cleaned up ready for painting, the pikemen have proved the easiest, and I like the look of the completed figures:

 

 

 

 

 Gods willing I'll be able to get the paints out this coming week - I now have a considerable backlog to apply the brushes to, and Naval November is also ticking away....

 

 

Until next time..............

Paint Table Saturday

Just a (relatively) short post as it's a hectic Saturday at Pendragon Towers, not least because we are off to see Julia Fordham tonight on her Porcelain 25 Tour. I am most excited, being a long-time fan who has yet to see the songstress live. Her intimate small-venue gig will be preceded by good curry and followed with good company and merlot. Roll on!

On the Paint Table today - My prepped retinues for Lion Rampant. These Perrys seem to have taken an age to prepare, and have been augmented with a handful of Crusader Miniature archers, as I was starting to suffer from Plastic Paralysis..... I know people offer painting services, does anyone do preparation services?!

Still to do the additionals (mercenary crossbows, mounted knights, pikemen, etc) but this is enough to get me started, not least because our guest lodger (daughter's continental boyfriend) has departed which means I have the dining room table back - the paints come out of storage tomorrow! Hurrah!

In the centre of these Wars of the Roses troops stands the incongruous Mariel Twinspar. She is a female pirate by Reaper Miniatures, and I plan for her to be my contribution to Roy Williamson's Naval November themed paint-up. She has a resin timber-effect base I had lying around which seemed appropriate. There may be another item for Naval November later this month, it just depends on workload:

 

I have completed both my Secret Santa and Santa Clause obligations, so am ahead there at least. I have also completed Bernard Cornwell's The Empty Throne:

I view the Uhtred novels in the same way I do beers - There're no bad ones, just some better than others! This one is a splendid romp that slows about midway, but then picks up again and delivers a very wargameable (is that a word? Google+ doesn't think so.....) action toward the end, albeit at large skirmish level and requiring a bit of scenery! Recommended, as are all Cornwell's Saxon Stories series.

Until next time...................

Lion Rampant - Perry Miniatures' Retinues

Thanks to the new combination of Man and Chair in perfect harmony, work continues apace on my Wars of the Roses retinues for Lion Rampant. All the figures are Perry, either plastic or metal.
I completed a surfeit of men at arms, enabling me to pick and choose which I want to use. These chaps caused me some issues:

Basically their polearms are extremely soft an flimsy and throughout the cleaning-up process I was continually re-straightening the damn things. I don't know if this is a common problem of Perry miniatures, but I can see issues once they are painted, especially with excessive handling. The plastic Foot Knights, by comparison, seemed robust and somehow 'beefier'.

I am creating two retinues, so here are the two Leaders, unnamed as yet:

 

And for a bit of variety I have two others so I can ring the changes as required. These need rebasing - I am using plastic lipped bases for the leaders so they stand out, which is a prerequisite of the Lion Rampant rules.

 

 

 

Each retinue will consist of four units:

 

• 1 unit of Men at Arms on foot (including the Leader) - 6 figures
• 2 units of expert archers - 12 figures each
• 1 unit of expert foot sergeants - 12 figures

 

I will be creating some mounted units and also some mercenaries to add even more variety. The bulk of the retinues will be plastic figures. These are a bit of a pain to clean up, but relatively easy to assemble, and can be combined in a variety of ways (especially when mixed with the Perry's European Infantry boxed set) so that each unit has an individual flavour.

 

These are the first unit of expert archers. Like all the non-leader figures, they are based on mdf discs from Warbases:

 

 

So, progress has been made and thanks to my new chair, I seem to be making inroads into this new project.

 

Until next time......





Paint Table Saturday - Lion Rampant

After my adventures in Normandy, and a heavy week at work, I finally got my painting table partially set-up again, and I'm playing around with a couple of retinues for Lion Rampant using Perry Miniatures' Wars of the Roses range in both metal and plastic. There should be enough figures to give me a few different options re troop types.

Firstly I need to check out what I've got for the Foot Men at Arms:

Bases are MDF from Warbases, and back left you can see my newly-reorganised tool box. I am also still using my £5 IKEA painting tray - this is easily the longest I have had the same painting tray for, since I started painting - a real bargain!

I should also mention that the closing date for this year's Secret Santa is October 19th, so nip over to The Blog with No Name to enlist in time for this Christmas' fun!

Until next time.....