Mixed Batch of Figures - Dark Age Cavalry, Polish Renaissance, Wild West, WW2 & ECW, all 28mm

Well its been quite some time since my last post - real life havng caught up with me, organising & celebrating my Dad's 90th Birthday, helping my son and his family move house (still ongoing) and keeping on top of a busy work schedule and helping run a local sports club!

Anyway here is a bunch of stuff that I have got painted and completed over the last few weeks but not havd time to 'show and tell'. Overall not my greatest work but at least I've got things moving again....

All the Dark Ages Cavalry in one line!

First up are 11 x 28mm Dark Age cavalry, these are being presented as Norman allied cavalry or even as mounted Anglo-Saxon warriors - I have tred to keep the iconography neutral (as far as possibe) to give that flexibility.

Norman Allied Leader, Conquest GAmes figure on a Wargames Atlantic Horse.

The reverse view, showing shield

The group contains a leader plus a standard bearer, as well as nine other fgures armed with a variety of hand weapons ranging form swords, axes, javelins and spears. There is also a guy with a lance nad pennant.

Two more Conquest Games figures on Wargames Atlantic horses.
Both have been given kite shields and wear leather armour. The standard is generic.

And onther view of the two figures

The leader is on a round, 40mm base, as per the rest of my collection, there are actually three plastic figures, all left over Conquest Games Normans, seated on Warlord Atlantic Horses, the other figures are all metal and from a batch of Dark Age Cavalry I sourced form eBay at a reasonable price.

First three of the metal eBay batch

The metal figures have been suplmented with platic shields and a variety of metal and plastic weapons. The eagled eyed amongst you will see that I have base two figures together of a single base - a departure from my usual approach but a neccessity resulting from a very weak end to the javelein in the hands of the figure on the left - basing them together willl hopefully protect it a bit from my (and other's) sausage fingers!

These guys are all unarmoured and have a variety of weapons as well as kite & round shields.

Not the greatest picture, central guy is the one with a weak javelin
so I glued hime to a shared base with another figure, t tryand give it potection

These figures have been given a mix of kite and round shields, to give a feel of Norman influence on the more well off warriors but a reliance on older kit by the less fortunate.

A clearer view of the shared double base and the offending javelin

These guys will make an apperance at Stamford Bridge!

Final two figures

And final view!

Next we have two Polish Officers to be used in my Vienna 1673 games, they were again sourced from eBay at a bargain proce and you can never have enough Poles on the tabletop.

The two Polish leaders

I refrained from adding wings to these guys, prefering the to be able to be used as more regular cavalry, one is unarmoured and brandishing a pretty mean looking mace, whlist the other is armoured but is checking a scratch built map.  The map being used to cover an unfortunate cut into the horse's neck line.

And another view

Next up is a test figure from the Wargames Atlantic Panzer Lehr sprue that came free on the front of September's MinatureWargames magazine. I'm pretty pleased how he has turned out and I'm going to build a few more figures to join him.

Warlord Games Panzer Lehr figure, changing magazines on his MP40

Next are two venerable Warlord Games ECW pikemen, I have a bunch of these fully armoured fellows and I plan to build these into a small unit as and when I get time. I chose a light blue uiform for them but will likely try other colour conbinations for the remaining guys.

Two fully aroured and uniformed pikemen, ready to repel cavalry!

The reverse view

Lastly we have four Wild West townsfolk from Wargames Foundry, these have been lanquising in my loft, garage and/or workbech for far too many years and I felt it was time to finally get them done. I'll hand them over to join Mike N's vast 25/28mm Wild West collection as soon as I get a chance to go to a club night again!

Some fairly well armed Wild West townsfolk

Three Winchesters and a Shotgun, heavy firepower if they are able to aim straight!

That's it for now - hopefully not such a long wait for the next post!

28mm Gripping Beast Dark Age Cavalry

Its taken a bit of time to build and paint these little guys this week, its been a busy week in 'real life'. So these figures are to be used in the forthcoming 'Battle of Stamford Bridge' in December, to represent the English horse thath was alledged to have been present at the battle.

Completed unit of Dark Age Cavalry

This is my first box of these figurs, 12 in all, each one represented in an unarmoured dress and carring a range of spears, javlins, swords and axes. For the battle I'll add another 2 boxes to give a good sized mounted force for the English agaings their Viking opponents.

These guys will represent lighter cavalry used by the English ad other nationalities. the models clearly do not have any stirrups for the riders and thus cannot be used as lance armed 'knights'

The figures made up well, I actually made the executive choice to replace the supplied heads with Victrix Ango-Dane / Viking heads as I actually like the sculpts better and the helmets supplied with the kit were a little too 'early' in appearance for my taste.

Another view of the unit

I spray painted the figures black and then added a top down spray of white to give a base highlight before setting to with my paint palette. All the horses were painted using speed paints, as were some of the figures. They grey horse had a white dry brush applied and where I used regular paints I applied appropriate washes before varnishing and basing.

Reasonably pleased with this weeks work!

Finally a closer look at the rear rank

Vikings and Saxons, 3D Printed figures

This week I was able to work through a set of 3D Printed figures that I acquired off eBay. They were listed as Vikings and Saxons and were a pretty reasonable price, the sets were Viking Berserkers, Dark Age Slingers and Saxons, 24 figures in total.

The Saxon set

Now on arrival and looking at the figures I was a little disappointed with the quality of the sculpts, of the 10 Saxon figures, there were only a couple of stand out figures - the commander, pointing and the standard bearer. That said after painting the figures - they will all look OK, en masse in a suitable army.

These Saxons are definitely not 'historically' accurate, with somewhat suspect chainmail designs.

My biggest criticism of these Saxon fellows is that they are not historically accurate - they are definitely a fantasy version of a Saxon warrior, with significant embellishments to their chainmail shirts. It is once you start painting them that you realise the limitations of the sculpts and the poor definition on the faces and other details.

The remaining Saxons in close-up

Not showing very well in the photo is an attempt to print a flag design on paper and then attach to the moulded flag, concept good, execution leaving a little to be desired!

As noted the Saxon commander was a nice figure but looking at the above rear view it is very doubtful that a Saxon warrior would be a carrying a two handed sword as depicted on the model.

Victrix Housecarl

By way of light relief I had found a Victrix Housecarl hidden in the clutter of my work desk, so I felt I had to paint him up, He'll be joining his friends to fight the Vikings at Stamford Bridge in December!

Next up was a group of six Dark Age slingers, these were relatively few and far between in the battles that I'm interested in playing but the figures supplied here looked interesting. All my comments about the Saxons from above apply to these!

I placed most of these figures on a multi-base,
the unit included two female fighters and I painted these accordingly -
representing a unit made-up of old and young alike with 

Another view of the slingers

Finally we have the Viking Berserker figures, these all painted up nicely despite sharing mainly of the concerns I had for the Saxon figures. These guys are all bare chested and carrying axes, swords etc. As all of these had acres of bare flesh exposed, I painted them with my usual Army Painter Barbarian Flesh and then used Flesh Wash to add muscle definition, this worked pretty well on all figures.

8 x Viking Berserker figures.

Some nice figures in this set - the Standard Bearer is again somewhat fantasy in origins but the overall feel of these fierce follows seems to have come through. 

The shield was added to a figure that had lost it's arm in postage
and it nicely obscures the missing parts.

Overall, not a waste of time and money but the figures do have some challenges, these chaps will be joining their brethren for the 1066 Campaign.

Battle of Fulford Gate - Battle Report - Week One

Week One of the Battle of Fulford Gate was hosted by Rupert and involved 28mm figures from Mike W's collection. Mike W, also developed a set of 'Quick & Dirty' Dark Ages Rules for this series of 1066 gates.

On the Viking Side we had Rupert, Mat and Dave commanding Harald Harada and Tostig Godwinson' arrays. On the side of the English we had Steve, Mike N, Phil and Mark commanding the armies of Earls Edwin and Moncur.

The number of figures on each side was somewhat similar but the Vikings had generally better quality troops, albeit that their Victory Points required them to establish a foothold north of the river by the end of the day.

The Anglo Danish Armies, from the Western flank,
Earl Edwin's Mercians nearest the camera and Earl Moncur's Northumbrians in the distance.

Both sides had a command conundrum to solve before deploying their troops, the river over which they would be fighting was tidal and so they had to select a game turn in which to start the game with this in mind. Additionally the English side was tasked to hold the river line as long as possible, whereas the Vikings were marching on to the battle field and would want to start the game as early as possible.

Vikings of Gudbald's command (part of Tostig's motley array oy of allies & supporters)
lead an attack on Edwin's Fyrd on the western flanks.

After initial deployment - as it happens both sides elected to deploy as early as possible on turn one - the sides marched forward to the river line. The English reached the river line first and there set-up a shield wall along the length of their line.

Vikings from Tostig's division, heading north, come off the slopes and head towards the English lines on the river, hoping to cross at the bridge and ford locations.

Gudbald and his troops where the first to make contact with the English in and around the western marsh areas but the fighting was inconsequential and was to continue for many turns. To the East,  Moncur's forces closed and engaged with a Bondi unit initially attempting to force the bridge, only to be stopped by their English adversaries.

English Archers in the marshy are a to the west of the battlefield.

Harald reacted quickly as he was in the vicinity of the bridge attack, realising the Bondi unit was not suitable to succeed in such an attack he pulled them back and fed in his Berserkers instead. These proved much more effective as they began to cut their way through the defending General Fyrd.

The battle lies from the eastern point of view, with Berserkers attacking across the bridge 

The game reached a natural break-point, to be continued next week - there was now fighting all long the line with Viking units crossing the river and flinging themselves against the English shied walls

Detail of the bridge fight, with King Harald and his bodyguard, personally directing the attack

In the centre, Viking Bondi,
crossing the river to spread the happiness to two English units - one General he other Select Fryd

Final view of the Bridge battle, with the Berserkers pushing through the opposing Fyrd
but at the cost of casualties to themselves.

Week Two to follow soon!

AHPC XIII: From Mike W - More, more more! Dark Ages, Landsckneckts and 40k Orks (397 Points)

 More,  More, More (How do you like it?) sang Andrea True Connection back in 1976, well I'm afrid this week's hurried posting is a repeat of many of my previous weeks with More, more more! Dark Ages, Landsknechts and 40k Orks!

Carrying the big axe

But first off we take another trip on Lady Sarah's Limo to travel from the Fantasy Studios to the Superheroes Studio, this week's fare is another Warlord Games 28mm Female Survivor, this time a motherly figure wielding a rather effective looking axe.

And from another perspective...

The visit to the Superhero Studio now makes it 5 Green and three Blue studios, need to check what I need to visit 'The Director Chair'!

The Superhero figure that I present is that of Captain Scarlett, maybe not so well known in America and the New World but certainly a mainstay of British and many Commonwealth countries in the 60s, 70s & 80s.

Captain Scarlett of to battle the Mysterons

What's his superpower? Well he's indestructible for a start and all the TV episodes were filmed in SuperMarionation, which has to sound pretty cool, find out more <here>. This is a 20mm figure, with Scarlett in his classic Spectre Uniform, I have other figures that I may well look to dig out and paint up as his comrades in arms - Captain Blue, Lieutenant. Green etc.

Series Publicity Poster

They had some pretty cool vehicles as well and I have a couple, somewhere, in Warhammer Epic Scale that I need to dig out and paint!

Back view

So now on to the main subjects of this post. You'll likely be pleased to know that this is the last of my multi figure 40k Ork batches, I certainly am! It gets quite guelling painting so much green & red. Pretty much all of the figures are now done - just a couple of vehicles and a couple of special one-off figures that I hope to get around to in the next few weeks.

This week's 'final' Ork batch

This week there are just 9 x 40k Orks & Grechin, all produced in the same style as I have done since the beginning of this year's challenge. The first two are a couple of additional Grechin Herders, though anyone who has been following the development of this army will be aware that in this army it is the Grechin who are the brains and the Orks the muscle - in this case the Grechin Herders should be thought of as Grechin Minders or Bodyguards

Two Grechin Minders, guy on the right has the
Hyperaemic gun taken from the Pain Boy below.

Next up are two Bosses, one with a pet Squig on his backpole, the other with a Rising Sunz motif

Left A Boss with a pet Squiq, note skull on left shoulder.
To the right is anther Boss with a huge Blasta / Burna Combi Weapon

Another two Bosses, with assorted weaponry

I did a coupe of conversions in this batch, I really didn't want duplicate Grechin Herders - so converted his fella into a Boss with a diabolical prosthetic hand (taken form the Pain Boy model). I added a large Fantasy Goblin head to this figure - to make him appear to be a 'young' Ork that has just stepped up to the Boss role.

The second conversation is that of the Pain Boy, again I wanted to have a different looking second Pain Boy in the Army. Obviously his hand has already been cut off to do the first conversion, so I scoured the bits box and found some ancient 1980s parts for an old Rogue Trader Robots and found a pincer arm from an Ork Killa Can plus a power fist and an other limb.

A converted Grechin Herder, now given a new left arm and a Hand Blaster,
whilst his other hand has been replaced by 'Orky Scissor Hands'!!

Last Grechin in the box plus the new Pain Boy,
 complete with power fist, claw arm and a hydraulic crane.

The power fist nicely replaced the donated arm, I cut off the figure's left arm (a Hyperaemic Gun, which was donated to a Minder seen above)  and replaced this with the claw arm and then fitted the other limb to the Ork's back, so it can be used as a Hydraulic crane or similar - in doing this the Grechin on the Orks back, now uses a hand pump to activate the Hydraulic arm.

Next up we have a mix of Landsknecht foot, 23 in all with 6 x Pikemen, 6 x Crossbow and 11 x Handgunners. All have been painted in the same way as I have described in earlier posts and so I will not repeat again here. I have, however, been experimenting more with Army Paints' Speed Paint and I have used this on a number of figures in this group.

Latest batch of Landscknects, Pikemen, Crossbow men and Handgunners

Focus on the 11 x Handgunners 

And with the rear ran moved forwards for a better view

I have had mixed results with these - some are good, really good, but others have left me cold and so I will not use much more. I see a lot of value in the browns and greens that are available - it would be great to find a speed paint that can be used to paint musket woodwork !

Six Pikemen, the start of a second Landsknecht Pike Block for my collection.

And a front on view.

The Pikemen and Handgunners were pretty much straight out of the Box. To make up a group of six crossbow men, I have had to do a few conversions, taking parts fror the Wargames Atlantic Conquistador set to mash-up with Warlord Games parts to get the figures I wanted.

Focus on Crossbow men, center is a Captain, armed with sword in his right hand and crossbow in his left hand. Right is a musician, blowing trumpet and again crossbow slung on his back. Trumpet arm is from Perry Miniatures War of The Roses Infantry set.

Another view of the crossbowmen

Last but not least are this week's Dark Ages figures, a mix of Normans, Vikings and Anglo-Danes / Saxons. These are almost entirely metal figures and of these I think the majority are Gripping Beast.

This week's group of mostly metal Gripping Beast Dark Ages types

Again these figures will be pressed into the shield walls of my forthcoming 1066 mini campaign.

At time of the photo being taken,
I thought that this was all the Norman types ... 

I opted to paint most of the shields on this group as I struggled to get any transfers to fit the slightly odd shaped shields properly. As these completed figures will be distributed between the existing armies they'll fit in fine.

Rear Rank has moved forwards to get a view of them

Mostly Vikings & Anglo Danes / Saxons.
But as can be seen here, there were a couple of Norman types
that didn't make the original photo shoot. 

Rear ranks move through again, note the casualty marker in the front

Another view, pretty sure all above figures are Gripping Beast

Just behind the casualty marker can be seen
a single plastic Victrix Anglo Dane Huscarl

Three mounted metal Norman figures, left a knight, centre I have made -up to be a Standard Bearer - carrying William's Personal Banner and right is what I seem to remember as being an old Citadel figure, that I have painted up to be Bishop Odo - William's Brother

View from the other side

Finally sorry about the quality of some of the photos, I ran out of time this week and was snapping many of these after dark with eth flash on, always makes the colours much brighter and the photo starker in my opinion, will try and do better next week.