From PeterD Scots-Irish Slingers in 28mm (30 points)

A small post from me this week.  I was out of town at a actuarial exam meeting in Charlotte NC this weekend and I'm still struggling to keep up on my extra teaching load.

This is a unit of 6 Irish slingers for my Late Roman Britain project, based for To The Strongest.  I did some kit bashing using plastics here.  The torsos and heads are all from the Gripping Beast Irish set and the arms come from the Victrix Late Roman Archers and Slingers set.  The two kits mesh reasonably well and I was able to get a good mix of loading and firing figures.  As noted in my last post, the Victrix pack has more archers than slingers and many of the sling options are staff slings, which is a higher level of tech than would be seen in 4th Century Ireland.

Slingers are the only long range missile troops available to the Scots-Irish in TTS. They would typically be the fellows who lacked the minimum equipment (shield and spear) to form up in the war band.  Often they would be beardless yutes, as Cousin Vinnie would say. However, I prefer the GB heads with beards to the clean shaven heads.  I painted them in basic tunics with no decorations.  I left room for a lable, but I am overthinking tribal names for my Scots-Irish and haven't decided which ones to use.

Like the tunics, this is a basic minimalist post.  Six 28mm foot figures for 30 points and no room bonus.

 

The British from Wales, the Scots from Ireland, the Picts from Scotland and the Irish from, well, dunno, Ireland?  always bewilder me. Like the Asterix and the Germans, where our heroes are completely dumbfounded by the multitude of different Germans coming from all directions. However, there is nothing dumbfounding about these very useful slingers, Peter. Simple, yes, but effective, a fine job and some good kit bashing too. 30 points for you added to the spreadsheet ;-)

From AdamC Hurin Book and Dark Age Irish 110 points (1 Squirre)

 So this is very one is very much an interpretation on my part.  I for my book entry I am using the Simarilion and Children of Hurin because I am that sort of Nerd.   

Hurin Thalion (the steadfast or strong) possibly the greatest and most tragic of Tolkien's legendarium.   I used a Wargame's Atlantic Irish figure here.  He has the high crowed helm Tolkien seems to like.  the figue has no armor but we can imagin that tunic is actually a sure coat hiding mail. 

He wields an axe because that is the weapon he used at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the battle of unnumbered tears.  Hurin and his bother Huor an the men of Dor-Lomin formed a rear guard in the Fen of Serech where as the last man alive he discarded his shield and cried: Aurë entuluva! (Day will come agai) as he slew until draged down by overwhelming numbers (after killing at least 70 foes). Things when rapidly down hill from there for our hero as he watched Morgoth play merry hell with his children and allies.

I decided to do the cloak in dark green but the tunic in a yellow. Most depictions of Hurin seem to favor dark colors (black) but I liked the idea of him in bright colors (a light in darkness as it were) and I couldn't find anything to contradict this idea (someone will now do so I have no doubt 😂)

Next up five Irish warriors from the same set.  4 of them represent up class warriors though perhaps not the top echelon.

The fellow in the center is clearly of a lower order with his small shield and dagger back up weapon.

I'm pleased with the skin tones I got here. Presumably these fellows are going without shirts (or armor) to show off they're fine additions to my dark age Irish warband.

In Saga Wolfhounds are the icon unit for Irish warbands. I have some already but it's nice to add some more since they came in the box.

There are ten dogs in all plus the handler. With a javelin. 

The dogs fur and the handler's skin came out well a point of improvement in my painting (if I may say so)

Points Hurin is a 25 mm figure so 5 points plus another 20 as my book entry.

The Irish are all 25mm figures 10 dogs and 6 men for 80 points assuming the dogs get full points. The Irish should also net me another Squirrel point 

So another 105 points in total. Hopefully I will have an age of sail entry for next week. 

A fine collection of warriors of myth and history Adam.  I recognize those GB Irish warriors as I have a few in my army, although I've yet to paint any hounds.  Nice work on shields and yes the time taken painting these shows.   I am bumping your score up by a few points in recognition.

From PeterD: An Irish Tide on Luna (117 points)

The themes for Luna include tides and I present a boatload of Irish Sea Raiders who arrive with the tides on the western coasts of Dark age Britain.  Other than the curragh they sail in, the figures are all Gripping Beas and mostly from their plastic Irish set (or the Paddy O'Furniture set as it's known in our household).

Landlubbers and most North American sailors don't often realize but the tides along the coasts of the British isles are something to be reckoned with, with big tidal height and strong currents resulting from a lot of water sloshing through some narrow openings.  Tides determine when you can sail, which direction you sail in and when you can enter port.

Ireland in the Dark Ages was like most of its history rich in people and culture and poor in just about everything else.  So they exported their people to Scotland and Wales and used some forced acquisition import trade.  The leader here is a metal fig from the Arthurian range meant to represent a former mercenary who acquired better gear fighting foreign wars and has come back home.  Otherwise these are the Plastic Irish done straight up from the box.  I have had lots of metal GB figures but these were my first plastics from them and I was quite pleased with the box.  Nice poses, clean sculpt and good variety of heads, arms, shields and cloaks.  

Here's a back view of the cloaks showing the natural wool tufts that were used as decoration.  I've based them individually so that they can serve in Beowulf RPG skirmishes where they will serve perfectly as Sea Raider.  I also plan to have them serve as a unit of 12 for mass battle games (once I work out magnets and basing etc).

Close up of the second half of the bunch. You may notice that some look a little grainy which is down to my own impatience. The box arrived mid challenge in a cold snap and I was so keen to get them primed that I took them outside before the weather had warmed up enough.  However, they look ok and work well from my standard 2 foot range.  

Back view of this lot again with a cloak or two (these are separate pieces and can go on any torso before the head is attached).    I tried for a unit feel by using a limited colour palette and a common shield theme. Shields are all free handed in basic Celtic spirals.  I gave some figures basic plaids (the modern usage as a pattern, not the traditional item of clothing).  The flag was bodged together quickly in MS Word using Celtic clip art.

Two other metal figures.  The priest originally came with a sword and spear, but I wanedt a less violent Irish cleric.  I tried to bodge a cross by cutting down the sword, and may have to revisit that later.  The horn blower is from the GB Sub Roman British range and will end up with those forces.  Both are venerable but fine figures.  The Currragh is from the Freebooter's Fate range and is a resin cast.  Back in early December I was in Toronto on business and the trip armed with a shopping list.  A search on Meeplemart website of "boats" had unearthed this as a potential stand in for an Irish curragh, but I had no idea where to find it in store.  Turned out neither had their staff, but they assured me that if it was listed as in stock on the webstore, then it was in the brick and mortar store.  Kudos to the lovely young lady who searched all over the store to find it for me.

A curragh is a traditional Irish boat made of leather over a wooden frame.  According to Irish legend, St Brendan the Navigator and companions sailed to the New World in one in the 6th century.  Tim Severin's book The Brendan Voyage (a very good read) has great material on their construction and history.  I don't suggest following Severin's lead by sailing one to Newfoundland via The Faroes, Iceland and Greenland to prove that the legendary voyage was possible if you are determined and crazy enough.

Points wise I make it 14x28mm foot figures, plus I suggest counting the boat as a vehicle for 20, and 20 for Luna for a total of 110 points.  This could be my last post, but I am hoping for the traditional Shelf Soup last week end post of odds and ends. 

________________________

Great work Peter! What a great mob of Irish to bring a little more richness to your Dark Age collection. As you say kudos to the Meeplemart staff in digging up this boat to stand in for your curragh. It looks excellent, though as you say, I wouldn't trust one of these to take me from Newfoundland to, well, anywhere! Those were some tough and enterprising folks back then.

I'm going to give you a few extra points for the hand painted shields, though you may want to think of a wash and colour that banner as it looks a bit minimalist and anaemic for this hearty lot. :)

Well done!

From Mike W - 28mm Elizabethan Irish Missile men (45 Points)

You may remember earlier in this challenge that I completed a number of Irish Dark Age / Elizabethan figures in an earlier post this year, with the promise of converting a few remaining figures to be musketeers. Here they are accompanied with a trio of archers.

The group of eight Irish missile men

These figures are all Gripping Beast plastics, the archers from their Dark Age set and the Musketeers from their Irish set.

Three Irish Archers, centre & left have cloaks to add to their Irishness!

With the Archers I added a couple of cloaks to the figures to make them look more Irish, additionally a couple of the heads were substituted

Three Irish Musketeers, figure on right has extensive changes to get him to old a musket!

With the musketeers I 'liberated' suitable arms and weapons from the Warlord Games ECW plastic set and then did some pretty basis conversion work to add these to the Gripping Beast figures. Some cutting away of parts of the Irish figures to receive the Warlord arms was required along with quite some filling on the shoulder joints. The use of cloaks to disguise the worst gaps helped a lot!

Two marching musketeers

All figures were undercoated white and then suitable rustic colours, largely citadel 'Bubonic Brown' were applied to give that typical Irish look, before completing basic colours with flesh, browns, greens, grey and metallics etc. Washes were applied according to base colours to add shading and some highlights were re-applied using base colours.

After a matt varnish, basing was completed in my usual manner with fine sand and electrostatic grass.

Another view of the last two musketeers

POINTS

8 x 28mm Foot Figures = (40 Points)

Lots of good conversions here, Mike, I am loving these 16thC irish (calling them Elizabethan doesn't quite seem right).  The two makes of plastics seem to have worked out nicely, and they certainly have the right look to them.  Have you checked out the Perry Irish from their WoR range?

I have a set of the GB plastics on order so would be curious to hear your opinion of them.  I've thrown in a few points for the scratch building on this post.

From Mike W - 28mm Irish Foot (Dark Age through Elizabethan) (120 Points, Squirrel, Caprica)

These figures are from the new Gripping Beast Dark Age plastic boxed set, that I acquired over the Xmas Holiday as a present. The aim is to paint these up to join my existing Irish collection, that I use for both Dark Ages / Medieval Saga type games and also allow these to be used in Elizabethan period games as well.

All 20 of the Irish Warriors

The Gripping Beast figures come 5 to a frame, with a selection of heads, weapons and shields.

Those in the know will spot that I have only built 20 of the 25 figures in the boxed set, there are two reasons for this...

The first five Irish Warriors, I've gone with the smaller shield option as this allows
me to use them in later periods, and I have stuck to a muted colour scheme. The guy with the raised axe is the only one I have equipped with a large shield.

First I only started on Monday with a frame of these as a tester, whilst in between other figures that I have on the workbench but I enjoyed making up these figures and painting them so much that on Tuesday I made-up and painted another five.

Wednesday evening  upped the ante and made 10 more figures before painting these and completing their washes and varnishing on Thursday. Almost a definition of a true squirrel project.

Cloaks are optional on figures, there are three per frame supplied with the set

Oh and for the second reason - I held back five figures as I want to model these with muskets and or cross-bows to give them a more specific Elizabethan usage.

The figures are virtually flash free and to add variety I used some other Gripping Beast heads and arms from the spares box.

I swapped around heads from the spares box, there is a Victrix Anglo-Dane head and a Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warrior head here. I also gave the guy wit the raised sword an arm from the Conquest Games Norman set - to give a better quality Sword for him to be waving around

All figures were undercoated white, I used a predominantly yellow ochre type colour scheme for these men - to fit in with others in my collection but added more colours in their additional layers of clothing and cloaks. 

All got a watered down black ink wash and a varnish before being based.

The last set of five figures in this batch.

A Squirrel Point is claimed for Irishness of the group in Dark Ages / Elizabethan times

I'll also claim a Bonus for visiting Caprica, the Irish were doomed as a fighting force against the overwhelming power of the invading Normans and English throughout this period.

POINTS

20 x 28mm Foot Figures = 100 Points

Caprica Bonus                 = 20 Points

TOTAL                             = 120 POINTS

I think we have now run out of Mike posts...and it's good to end on an up note.  I was curious about these plastic Irish and now I think I'll have to get a box or three.  They have come up nicely indeed.  For the Elizabethan era ones, I suggest adding arms from the Perry European Mercenaries or Light Cavalry from their WotR ranges.  

From ManusH - 1798 Rebellion Characters and Isle of Lewis Chessmen (61 points)

Hey everyone! 

Since my last post I've painted lots. First up are two Leaders for my Sharp Practice United Irish Rebellion project. 

This uniform was really fun to paint 

 

This figure is General John Moore, most famous for his part in the Peninsular War. Earlier in his career, he was involved in the 1798 Irish Rebellion. Moore was among the generals sent to encircle Wexford Town. He engaged the rebels at Foulksmills, where his force included members of the 60th Rifles. 

Moore is well remembered in Wexford. In comparison to generals such as Gerard Lake, he showed leniency and restraint. On one occasion, Moore remarked that he would have joined the rebels had he been born Irish. 

I love this sculpt. It's from Trent Miniatures' Irish Rebellion range. I think Trent's mounted figures really stand out. Their proportions are quite oversized, but I think it makes the figures easily visible, and gives them a good likeness to the historical personalities they represent. 

Flag reads "Erin Go Bragh", a corruption of the Irish "Éireann go Brách", or "Ireland Forever" 

This is Robert Emmet, a Leader for my rebels. In April 1798, Emmet was expelled from Trinity College Dublin for his involvement with the United Irishmen. He didn't play a large part in the 1798 Rebellion. 

In 1803, Emmet attempted to reorganise the United Irishmen and launch a further rebellion. Like his predecessors, he aimed to secure French and radical British assistance, but failed. His uprising was defeated within a day. It would, however, continue to inspire nationalist organisations. 

A rather bewildered-looking bishop

A furious berserker! 

A noble knight

These are some test pieces for an Isle of Lewis chess set. I've wanted to paint one of these sets in a colourful style ever since I first saw them, nearly 10 years ago. They are truly intriguing designs, full of character. I've always thought of them as the medieval equivalent of wargaming miniatures.

The pieces were found in a cave or pit on the Isle of Lewis in the 19th Century. Several sets, complete or partial were found. They are Scandinavian in origin, and were probably made in Trondheim from walrus ivory. They date from the 12th Century. How they ended up on the Isle of Lewis is unclear. There are theories that the sets were being shipped to cities in Britain or Ireland for high class buyers. The Meath Queen is a contemporary piece of similar design found in Ireland, showing that chess sets of this style were popular in areas under Viking influence.

I had these pieces 3d printed for me on a resin printer. The STL files are available for free here. There are lots of other STLs of these pieces available however, so it's possible to use different designs of pieces. The real sets have lots of variation between them.

In terms of points, these figures add up to:

2x28mm foot @5pts each = 10pts

1x28mm mounted @10pts

2x54mm foot @10pts=20pts

1x54mm mounted=20 pts

Total=60pts

Excellent post Manus.  I am really enjoying the United Irish project .  My father in law was an Irish immigrant and Lynne and I had a really enjoyable week in ireland including a nice stop in Wexford.  There is a lot more to Moore than "the guy who dies at Corunna"  and it's nice to see him so well painted.  

And I have to get those Lewis chessman.  These are the sorts of artifacts that led me to nearly getting locked in the British Museum overnight (true story) and the red you've used looks great.  What colour kit will the opposition field?  I've added a point for the flag - what is it's source?

From AlexS: Dry the brushes! (110 pts)

Hello everybody! My name is Alex, and I'm from Russia. The next event is coming to an end, and I'm a little sad. First of all, because I spent three months in the same space with interesting and good people, but now the doors opened and the exit sign lit up. Secondly, I did not color everything that I thought to paint. 

Here is my "Hall of Shame:

But I managed to do something. For example, arbalester production company "Dear our friend Veniamin LTD." They are perfect for games for a long time period, although the manufacturer positions them as Irish for the dark ages.

 Well, a few miniatures on my project "Pirates", which I started and almost finished during the event.

General view:

 Well, the photo of my workplace - it’s mobile, because sometimes I ran from room to room to sleep from children and get a little pleasure from paint splashing little men ...

points:

28mm inf 22 x 5 = 110



As always, it has been fantastic having you along for the ride Alex. I think most Challengers have a "pile of shame" (not me this year, although I do still have stuff from the last 3 or 4 Challenges that still haven't seen the paint table!).

Lovely work on the pirates and arbalesters. Hope to see you again next time around!

TamsinP