Showing posts with label Perry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Perry. Show all posts

Sunday, 7 December 2014

Showcase - Part 3 of an occasional series

Once again to reiterate - My showcase series is not to say 'Look how clever I am' - I am well aware that there are much better painters and modellers than me out there! I just use this series to share items in my collection that I am particularly happy with and that others may appreciate or enjoy.

Enough - This time it's the Perry Medieval Cottage. A lovely kit to build, and one that lends itself to looking good on the tabletop with the minimum of work:


 
 
It comes with a small animal shelter/wood store, which I think would benefit from some sawn logs (i.e. cut-up twigs) to finish off - Note to self.

 
 
I tried to keep the colours fairly muted, and not overdo the groundwork. I could have added beehives (from Grand Manner) and perhaps a tree or two, but I think the finished item benefits from its simplicity. It's too easy sometimes to overpower a piece with accessories. Plus it leaves room for figures, something I often overlook!


 
 
 
The base is a cake board (the silver type) with mixed grade sand glued on. Ground colours were charred brown, desert yellow then skeleton bone. I used only two types of flock; coarse turf and fine static grass. I topped this off with a rubberised horsehair bush and some Army Painter summer clumps of grass. The bench is from Midlam Miniatures who make all sorts of interesting items.

 
 
Army Painter anti-shine spray finished off the piece. The Current Wife has pointed out that I photographed it on the most worn piece of hall carpet there is in the house and I should be ashamed! New carpet time in January methinks!
 
 
 
Until next time...............
 


Sunday, 30 November 2014

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........

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

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.........


Sunday, 23 November 2014

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........
 
 

Sunday, 16 November 2014

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..............

Saturday, 8 November 2014

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...................

Thursday, 30 October 2014

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......



Saturday, 18 October 2014

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.....

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

AWI Guards Battalion and New Perry Goodness

So, the speed painting turned out reasonably well. Using the strong tone wash didn't significantly reduce the painting time, but certainly helped. I still had to build the colours back up from the shading effect it created, but they look ok from relatively nearby so should be fine on the tabletop once based.

 
 
 
 
I also spotted the imminent release of the new Perry Foot Knights as advertised on their website:
 

Now how on earth am I going to resist buying those?!


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