Another two dozen halberdiers finished!

Thanks to a dry morning today, I've managed to varnish my remaining 24 halberdiers;

Once again, these are all Perry plastic figures and the first dozen represent a well-equipped group of heavily-armoured halberdiers, probably a retinue force belonging to an important military leader or maybe a group of professionals from a condottiere's company.

I was originally going to give them a simple red/white livery but decided to add some blue to the palette to brighten them up a bit.

One of the things I really like about these Perry figures is the wide range of variations you can get from a single box, and the even more wide range of figures you can get when you add in bits and pieces from the other box sets.

I've given the final twelve a red/black colour scheme. 

I've decided to call them the Rossoneri (look it up if you don't understand this). Perhaps they might be a group of well-equipped mercenaries from Milan? I've given them a standard-bearer, too. I think it adds a nice variation. The banner is plain red. I was going to give it black stripes but forgot to do it. I might go back and add them in because I think it would be more striking.

So. I have almost finished my project. All that I have left to finish off are the men-at-arms on foot I mentioned previously. I think I'll do something else in between working on them as a break from all that plate armour.

Twelve Canton of Uri halberdiers

I've been working on lots more Perry plastics for my Renaissance project.

These are Swiss halberdiers, once again painted in the yellow and black of the Canton of Uri, led by a fully-armoured chap with a standard who is accompanied by a herald with a brass horn.

These figures are from the War of The Roses Infantry box, as were the longbows I've posted previously. I have another 24 halberdiers/billmen to finish off and then all that I have left are more dismounted Men-at-Arms. To be honest, I think that my army has too many of those and not enough cheaper troops, but the Perry Foot Knights box contains a large number of figures (38 to be precise).

Once again, these are going to be useful for Lion Rampant, Dragon Rampant, Saga AoM and Never Mind The Billhooks.

More renaissance troops have arrived

Twelve more crossbowmen, to be precise, again all Perry plastics.

I decided to give these a blue and white colour scheme, with red crosses to denote that they were working for the Papal army. Of course, blue and white was also a colour scheme associated with the Duchy of Burgundy, so maybe they could be Burgundian mercenaries recruited to serve in my condottieri's band? 

In any case, it doesn't really matter, it is just nice to see a few more troops finished for the project.

I now also have three groups of twelve missile troops who could be an interesting component of a Saga: AoM Great Kingdoms army.

Owl Woman

 I realised yesterday that I hadn't posted anything for ages. Anyway, here is Owl Woman.

She is a Bad Squiddo figure, part of the Amazons range that I painted last year, but she had been lurking in my To Be Painted box, not exactly forgotten, just slipped down the list a bit. She is a Sorceress or Priestess. On the website, she is called Aurelia the Oracle. Here she is from behind.

Having finished her, I'm not sure that I've really done her justice. I think the colours I've chosen aren't really "right", but maybe she will grow on me. Who cal tell?

Anyway, I am thinking that she ought to hook up with Basil the Bold a.k.a. Angry Cat Guy and head off to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat.

I am sure that she would work in Saga: Age of Magic games, or maybe in Of Gods and Mortals or Dragon Rampant armies too.

This figure is HUGE

This figure was a freebie that came with  the latest copy of Miniature Wargames magazine. It is for a game called "Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings", which I'd never actually heard of before. Anyway, it is in 38mm scale, which seems pretty unique.

Here is the finished item, next to a 28mm Victrix Roman auxiliary cavalryman;

That is ridiculously big. Here are two more pictures of the Big Guy.

I only made him up and painted him for something to do. I've no intention of buying into a game system that uses such large minis as standard. The thing is this, though; I could see a point to him once I'd glued him together and undercoated him in black.

I think that he would be fine as a gigantic Daemonic Knight, probably as a Warlord for a Saga; Age of Magic warband, such as my Otherworld one, or for a Dragon Rampant force, which is why I used a fairly classic Chaos colour palette of black, bronze, brass, steel and red. His helmet has a weird flaming-looking crest, which I decided would look pretty good as actual flames, so that is how I tried to paint it. 

He was actually pretty easy to paint, because of the size of the model. I liked the idea of his daemonic steed having brass hooves, and they seem to have worked quite well. I left the slight amount of visible face black, to give the impression that whatever is inside the armour is Not Of This World.

Annoyingly, after I'd taken the photos, I noticed a few grains of ballast clinging to his horse barding, which I have now removed with a paintbrush.

Six more mounted Shieldmaidens

 This time unarmoured ones.

These are also Bad Squiddo minis, and they will be joining their armoured sisters as the cavalry arm of my Shieldmaiden army.

As I have said before, I'll be using these for troops in a number of different rulesets, particularly Saga Age of Magic, Lion and Dragon Rampant, and probably for other things that I haven't even thought of yet. I am very keen on having figures that can serve multiple purposes.

These were finished a few days ago, but I was waiting for the weather to become less wet to avoid fogged varnish. As you can see, they have come out fine.

The tufts on the bases are, once again by Gamer's Grass, available from Bad Squiddo.

Mounted Shieldmaiden Hearthguards

Having finished my mounted Lagertha figure, I decided to press on and paint up the five Bad Squiddo mounted armoured Shieldmaidens that I've had for a fair while as her Hearthguard.

Firstly, here are the five riders alone;

And here they are led by their chieftain;

These are clearly going to be useful for all manner of games, particularly Saga Age of Magic (I will probably use them as a Horde), Lion Rampant and, especially Dragon Rampant, where I think a Shieldmaiden army would be a more acceptable option to put on the table than in the historical version of the rules. 

The tufts on the bases are all Gamer's Grass, also available from Bad Squiddo.

I now have six unarmoured mounted Shieldmaidens to paint, to bulk out Lagertha's cavalry forces.

Finally ............. I have painted something; Lagertha and three shieldmaidens

I posted a couple of weeks ago about why I wasn't painting, but I am getting back on track again. 

This is the mounted Lagertha (also known as Lathgertha, Lagerða and Hlaðgerðr) by Bad Squiddo. I painted the foot version of her about a year ago. 

Here she is from the other side.

To add to my existing unarmoured Shieldmaidens, here are three more armed with spears. This gives me a total of 12 spear-carrying Shieldmaidens (if I add my single armoured one as a unit leader) who will make a nice single unit for Lion and Dragon Rampant.

I am so glad to be painting again. I think that I needed to do this for my mental health, which has taken a big battering over the last couple of months.

I have eleven mounted Shieldmaidens prepped now, six unarmoured and five in mail. I will add the Lagertha figure to the latter to give me two groups of six riders, again primarily for Lion or Dragon Rampant, but they will also, together with my existing Shieldmaidens be perfect for Saga: Age of Magic.

A Big Angry Red Guy

 Well, he is a giant, after all.

I wanted a BIG giant for various reasons, and it took me ages to find one who looked like the sort of giant that would work for me, seeing as I wanted one who would fit into various rulesets. I found this giant on the Miniature Heroes website, where he is described as Fire Giant (huge), which seems a pretty reasonable summary, seeing as he is around 7.5 cm tall.

He is a Reaper Bones DHL range plastic figure, which means that he is both reasonably-priced and not too heavy. He is made from a softish plastic but despite that is fairly detailed. 

The body comes in two parts that have to be joined at the waist and his arms, the two morning stars and a small chest that goes on his belt at the back are also separate. They glue together easily enough. I used Gorilla gel superglue, which I think is pretty good stuff. I also stuck him to a 5 cm square MDF base, which I gave a coating of ballast.

On the packaging it states that he doesn't need priming but that if you do prime him, avoid spray primers. I ignored that and gave him a good undercoat of Halford's grey plastic primer, which went on well with no bad side effects.

In the last picture, I have posed him with a Bad Squiddo 28mm Amazon, to give you some idea of how big he actually is. Impressive, I think, even though we all know that size doesn't really matter, does it.

As he is a Fire Giant, I wanted to use a predominantly red, bronze and brass palette, and I also wanted him to have a very red complexion too, to signify all that pent-up fiery anger and power inside him. He even has dark red eyes, to make them look blood-filled.

 Similarly, I wanted the ground he strides across to look hot and burnt, so the ballast was painted black and dry-brushed with red, yellow and orange, with some very pale grey to look like hot ashes. I think it just about works, even though the yellow hardly shows up.

I am planning to use him as Surtr in my planned Norse force for Of Gods and Mortals, which will mainly consist of my Bad Squiddo Shieldmaidens, led by the goddess Freyja.

The red colour palette might also make him suitable for my Saga; Age of Magic Otherworld band too, and I am sure that he will work for other things too, maybe a AoM Shieldmaiden Horde, and definitely in a Dragon Rampant setting.

Renaissance mounted men-at-arms

I had two Perry plastic 28mm men-at-arms bodies and horses left over from my Condottieri project and, as I want to be able to use my Papal mercenary band as a Great Kingdoms force for Saga: Age of Magic, I decided to make the figures up and use them as Paladins, a kind of Hero with enhanced abilities when fighting Monsters and units of Creatures. However, I also wanted to keep them looking realistic, so that I might be able to use them in more conventional settings, and here they are.

As you can see, I have chosen a simple blue and yellow colour palette for the two figures, allowing them to stand out against the red/white and yellow/black appearance of the rest of the Condottieri/Great Kingdoms army. I've also given them grey horses and blue steel and brass finished armour. They are far from outlandish-looking, so they won't be out of place in a historical game, but they are still quite distinctive and will look "special" on the table.

At last! Back to the Condotta.

I haven't posted anything about my Papal Condottieri force since the end of May, which is half a year ago, and far too long. What can I say though? Other things jumped the queue and took up all the space on my painting list.

Anyway, I have now finished off a group of twelve Romagnol pikemen, including a leader with a banner and a musician.

The Romagna is a region of Italy to the north of Rome and was in the later mediaeval and renaissance periods usually under Papal rule as part of the Papal States. the name Romagna is derived from the Latin Romania, meaning "land ruled by Romans".

The region was almost constantly at war and parts of the Romagna were at various times ruled by Venice and Florence. It is often claimed the the best Italian pike-armed troops came from the Romagna. Cesare Borgia carved out his short-lived Duchy of Romagna in around 1500, but it didn't survive his downfall in 1504 and the Duchy was reabsorbed into the Papal States.

I have obviously chosen to paint these troops in the red and white livery that the majority of my Condotta troops, apart from the Swiss contingent are wearing.

Once again, these are all Perry plastic 28mm figures, which I really love to work with. They are nice sculpts, with plenty of variations and they paint up really well. In the pictures above, I have chosen to show them in a loose formation of two ranks and also in a tighter column.

I'll obviously be using these for Lion Rampant, but once again, they will also be suitable for Dragon Rampant and Saga: Age of Magic games.

Some more Bad Squiddo Shieldmaidens, plus something else

I've been slowly expanding my collection of Bad Squiddo Shieldmaidens, with a view to using them in Dragon Rampant and also Saga Age of Magic. To that end, I bough four more Berserkers and the older range of berserkers, now relabelled as Fanatics.

I really like these figures, because they are so different from the rest of the Shieldmaidens in the collection. I am planning to use these together with the Fanatics (below) and the Berserkers I painted last year as 12 Bellicose Foot for Dragon Rampant.

Here are the four Fanatics. First, from the front;

These were supposed to be used with slottabases (which I don't really like), so I trimmed off the tabs and superglued them to 2.5cm MDF round bases. The third figure had her foot raised up on a metal peg shaped like a tuft of grass for stability but I wanted something a bit more interesting, so I trimmed it away and replaced it with a plastic head from my spare bits box. Much more in keeping, I think. The figure on the left wears an apron, which I have chosen to paint as blood-stained.

Here is a view of the same figures from behind. There is some lovely detail on these, which cries out for subtle shading to bring out the folds in the fabric of their clothes.

Finally, here are the original four Berserkers which I painted last year. As you can see, I've tried to keep a fairly uniform appearance to these warriors.

Finally, here is the different thing I mentioned in the title of this post;

This is a Grim Reaper statue from Wargames Terrain Workshop, which I bought the year before last at the annual IPMS Show in Thornbury. The club has been involved with this show for a long time now, and we run a Bring and Buy table, as well as running a participation game. Last year we ran What A Tanker in 15mm and we will probably do this again in 2019.

Anyway, here are more views of the Grim Reaper, or "Dave Death" as I've taken to calling him.

I bought him for Frostgrave originally, but he will fit right in with anything with a creepy theme. There simply has to be a graveyard in a slightly odd village that needs a big old statue of Death in it, be it for 7TV, Call of Cthulhu or something else. It is a big piece, being 11cm tall on a 4cm square base.

I painted his scythe blade in gunmetal and gave it a wash of rust paint and it seemed a good idea to make the goblet into something metallic too, rather than just leaving it as carved stone.

Swiss halberdiers join my Condottiere's band

I've had these halberdier figures half-painted for a while now, but got back working on them and finished them off yesterday. Once again they are Perry European Mercenaries 1450-1500 plastic 28mm models.

I wanted these to form part of the Swiss contingent of my Papal band, and I wanted to paint them in the same yellow/black scheme I used for the pikemen, representing the Canton of Uri.

There are 11 halberdiers plus a leader figure in heavier armour with a mace and a buckler. First, here they are as a block of troops;

And here they are in a line of two ranks;

I shall be using these as Fierce Foot for Lion Rampant, as suggested in the rulebook. Of course, they could also be deployed as Averland troops in an Empire army for Dragon Rampant or some other ruleset. 

The polearms (a mixture of halberds, glaives and voulges) were made by cutting down arms with pikes from the box and glueing polearm heads onto the shortened pike shafts, a rather tricky business. I've deliberately made the weapons differ in shaft length and also used a number of different heads for variety.

I like the way that they have turned out. I added in a few touches of red to provide a subtle colour lift to the overall group. The red codpiece on a couple of figures is a nod to 80s funk group Cameo.

The Condotta is recruiting Swiss troops now

I have always wanted an army with Swiss pikes in it, so now I have the chance. There is something about the Swiss that appealed to me when reading about the Italian Wars. Not as flashy as their Landsknecht imitators but brutal and efficient, possibly the most feared opponents of all on the battlefields of Renaissance Italy.

I was going to work on some crossbowmen next, but the allure of the Swiss Pikes, plus the fact that I could get away from the red and white major theme of my mercenary army won out when push came to shove.

Once again, these are all Perry plastics from the European Mercenaries 1450-1500 set.

I chose to paint my Swiss in the yellow and black of the Canton of Uri, because I love the colour scheme, and it also echoes the Warhammer Averland army that I used to own a long time ago. Here are the 10 pikemen and a musician that I completed this week;

The musician is a horn blower, and the horn was taken from the Gripping Beast Dark Ages Infantry set. It fits perfectly.

The reason I only painted 11 figures is because I already had a standard bearer/leader figure. Here is the finished 12-man unit;

Here they are as a 4 x 3 block of figures, which seems a reasonable way of fielding them in a Lion Rampant force.

I am really very happy with the way that these have come out. They are quite well-armoured and to my eye represent the tough and uncompromising Swiss mercenaries who dominated the early period of the Italian Wars and earlier conflicts. Of course, I can also use them as an Averland contingent in an Empire army for Dragon Rampant against the foul Orcish green hordes or other enemies.

My latest big project - A Condottieri band in Papal service

I have long had a desire to do something with the lovely Perry plastic late mediaeval/renaissance box sets. I mentioned this at Christmas and now I have actually embarked upon the project.

My plan is to create a condottieri band which I can use for Lion Rampant games, but which can also be used for other sets of rules. I know that creating a force for the latter part of the 15th century stretches the Lion Rampant period right to the end of the 15th century and into the early part of the 16th, but I think that it will be fine. I've decided on a force in Papal service because that means that I can use a fairly unified colour scheme, predominantly red and white, but which will also allow me the flexibility to use other colours too. We should remember that there were no real uniforms in this period, certainly not among mercenaries, but that there were specific combinations of colours associated with retinues belonging to city states, powerful nobles and others.

I have plans for a number of troop types; pikemen, troops with polearms, crossbowmen, arquebusiers (which I will probably deploy as bidowers), armoured men-at-arms (both mounted and on foot), lighter cavalry, mounted crossbows etc. 

Looking at the number of sprues I have, I will admit that this looks like a pretty daunting task, but one has to make a start and here is where I am so far.

I like to start off with a leader or character, because that gives me a nice thing to do before I plunge into the rank and file. So, here is a commander on foot with his standard bearer, a herald (using the English king body and a head and trumpet from the Light Cavalry box and six heavily-armoured men-at arms on foot with polearms and a two-handed longsword. I know that Lion Rampant doesn't really need leaders looking like this, but I intend to ignore the standard bearer and treat the base as a single figure. The Herald was just a nice extra to paint up. I'm sure that he'll get used somewhere along the line.

I will paint more of these armoured foot later on, but I am currently working on some mounted troops, which should be finished by the end of the week.

Of course, these guys will also be ideal for Dragon Rampant too, and also probably Sword and Spear, so this is a win-win project. I am also thinking about how I might use Pikeman's Lament and Lion Rampant concepts together to take this force into the Italian Wars.

Ho Ho Ho! What was under my tree this Christmas?

Well, this is only the wargaming stuff. There were some CDs too, but you aren't interested in those, are you?

First, there were some sets of rules. I am interested in playing Lion Rampant next year, but I also see a lot of fun to be had from its fantasy derivative, Dragon Rampant. I also think that The Pikeman's Lament would be a good way to get into something that I've long wanted to do, 17th century Pike and Shot gaming. I really want some 3/4 armoured cuirassiers and reiters at some point.

Anyway, my first plan is to create an Italian City State or Condottieri force for Lion Rampant, so the two Perry Plastic boxes I got will be incredibly useful, and will obviously fit in with the plastic Light Horse I bought a while ago for the project. I've also got another box of the Mercenaries and one of the Foot Knights too, so I have lots of options here for different units and a variety of different armies. 

I also got some Crooked Dice figure sets for my, as yet unstarted 7TV project. Still, I won't lack things to paint in 2019, so roll on the Too Fat Lardies Painting Challenge 2019.

I got a set of Aliens. Definitely going to be featuring these guys in a game once they are painted.

And a set of Weird Science figures. I really love the blobby monsters.

I have finally finished all my Freyja's Wrath shieldmaidens

Well, it has been a bit of a long job, mainly because I really wanted to do these lovely figures justice, but I have now finished them. I have enough for a Saga Viking warband, with some optional changes to the basic band.

Anyway, here are the final sets of figures. First, here are 12 archers, who will be classed as bow-armed Levies for Saga;

Next, eight unarmoured Warriors with axes;

And finally, eight unarmoured Warriors with spears;

Obviously, I will be fielding these as Vikings, but they could also serve as Anglo-Danes or Jomsvikings (without the archer levies).

Regarding the colour palette I used, once again, I wanted to keep a few unifying touches, therefore, the spear-armed shieldmaidens have predominantly black and yellow shields and the ones with axes have shields that are mostly red and black. I also kept to a basic set of three or four main colours for the clothing and I did a fair amount of dry-brushing to tone down the brightness of their appearance. I think that this has worked pretty well, they are not too subdued overall, but they are reasonably understated.

Now they are finished, I have a game of Saga arranged for next Sunday at the club.

These will also find a place in my Dragon Rampant plans for 2019.

Freyja's Wrath - armoured Shieldmaidens and more

Well, I've made excellent progress with my lovely Bad Squiddo Shieldmaidens and I am really happy with the results. If I use these for Saga, they are all going to be classed as Hearthguards. I've tried to stick to a relatively simple colour palette, with the same few colours being used across all the figures, including on their shields. 

First, here are four Shieldmaidens with axes. I really love the one with the chainmail veil over her face. She looks like she is ready to dish up some serious trouble to someone.

Next, here are four Shieldmaidens with spears. These make a nice contrast, being bare-headed.

Next, here are the rest of the armoured Shieldmaidens. These are brandishing swords.

So, these 12 figures will probably be my default 3pts of Hearthguards for Saga, but I also have the option of fielding a group of four Berserkers, and here they are, wild women clad in animal skins and waving some big choppers about. I really love these figures, really dynamic. I suppose they could also be used as a Reduced Unit of Bellicose Foot in Dragon Rampant, with each figure having 3 lives.

Finally, here is my other Thorrun mini, painted to fit in with the colour palette of my Shieldmaidens, together with Morgana, who I see as a magic user, but who my partner described as "that weird nature priestess". I think that Morgana is a really terrific figure. I love her staff, and I've tried to paint it as though it contains some kind of captive Green Man spirit entity. To keep the nature/fertility theme going, her base has actual tufts plus a lighter green flock with coloured bits that (to my eyes, at least) looks like a carpet of young grass and tiny flowers.