Secret Santa and Santa Clause

This year I participated in both the Secret Santa organised by Cath and Ian over at The Blog with No Name and the Santa Clause, run by Chris at Wargamer's Odds and Ends.

Many thanks to all of them for administrating these initiatives, I'm sure all the participants enjoyed them immensely - I certainly did!

The Secret Santa bought me a large package containing Grand Manner's Pilgrim Cross (which was on my Wish List) plus the bonus of a medieval beehive, which shows my personal secret santa had certainly done their research. Whoever you are, Sir or Madam, thank you very much!

My Santa Clause had investigated my Blog and came up with an appropriate gift: Three painted Italian Battleships to go with my Hallmark purchases from earlier this year. These delightful little ships should give me the impetus to get on with my naval project, although I will struggle to match the excellent paintwork!

 

 

And if that wasn't enough, the Current Wife purchased the Crusader Army Offer for me:

 

LRDeal - Lion Rampant The Army Deal 1

Army Deal for Lion Rampant, the new Medieval skirmish game from Osprey Wargames. It is made up from the Crusader Medieval 13th Century MCF figures.

1 Mounted Knight Unit (6 Figures)
1 Mounted Knight Unit (6 figures)
1 Foot Knight Unit (6 figures)
1 Crossbow Unit (12 figures)
1 Bidower Unit (6 figures)

which was topped up with some Fireforge Mounted Sergeants, plus two tickets for next year's Salute, so it looks like 2015 should be busy!

 

I hope you all have been as fortunate as I have, and received some lovely shiny goodness.

 

 

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.........



Dear Secret Santa.......

This year's Secret Santa is under way thanks to The Blog with No Name and it has been suggested I post a small list of my needs/wants/interests to assist my own personal Santa.

Therefore, in no particular order:

• A night out with Bjork, Paloma Faith and Stevie Nicks (I will consider these separately if procurement looks problematical)
• 28mm Mounted medieval knights - Crusader, Curteys, Gripping Beast etc.
• 1/6000 German ww2 ships - Hallmark/Magister Militum
• 28mm Norman/Frankish archers or crossbowmen - Crusader, Perry etc.
• 28mm Dungeon Scenery
• Produce set - Warlord
• Plastic ruined house kit - Warlord
• 28mm Fantasy treasure chests
• 28mm Pilgrim's Cross - Grand Manner
• 15mm AWI British (3 foot packs = 1 Battalion) - Peter Pig
• Surprise me!

I am attempting to suss out my own target's wants and needs, so I can appreciate the value of a helpful list - it can be a difficult business otherwise!

Can I also repeat a warning from my Google+ Page:

 

Yesterday I had my Amazon account hacked to the tune of £432.99  -  Look to your passwords everyone. Hopefully they've caught it in time and I will get the cash back,,,,,,,,but I am one angry baby!

 

 

 

 

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.....

PTS, Update and Off to Normandy

Some progress on the medieval buildings for Lion Rampant - the Tabletop Workshop Chapel, and I have started Total Battle Miniatures' Market Cross:

 

 

They both need some major dirtying-up yet though!

 

During the week I received these - also for Lion Rampant, which will temporarily go into the Shed of Delights until I start assembling my medieval forces:

 

 

 

I completed my Santa Clause gift for a fellow Blogger, and have taken some photo's so I can post about it next year(!). I have also entered this year's Secret Santa, so looking forward to finding out who I'm buying for.

 

Neil Thomas' Microwave Wargaming  One-Hour Wargames popped through the door courtesy of Grumpy Mailman so I shall take that away with me next week - The cover is definitely different from Amazon's pre-order picture, it now has a WW2 theme. I like it less:

 

 

 

 

 

 

On that note I will be in Normandy with my mate Mog visiting all the pertinent sites next week, so looking forward to that immensely, not least because I love both red wine, and rustic farmhouse cider, as well as visiting battlefields! Hence, no blogging until I return with a loaded camera and some duty-free goodies. The downside is I have to clear my painting set-up from the dining room table before I go!

 

 

Have a peep here at Gingerbhoy Roy's Blog and have a go at his Naval November theme paint-up - I'm going to - another good excuse to stretch the painting muscles!

 

 

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