Charge !!!! - Back to the Crusades...

The Chinese have taken a bit of a back seat lots of prep done and the foundations to make them ready for the finer detail in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile as we turn into February and prompted by, one of my gaming group launching a monthly painting challenge with the theme for the month of Charge!!!!

Yet another unit of cavalry for the Outremer project....

Rather worryingly these fine fellows were first under coated in last January. So the perfect excuse to get them table ready....

Great castings from Footsore and some extra Arab Heavy Cavalry for Saladin's army.

As with pervious units shield decals from Little Big Man Studio's so much easier and look so much better than had painted.

One more cavalry unit to go... before all of the Arab forces are finally complete....

Excalibur - Oathmark Orcs.

I need to seriously increase my pace - time seems to be running away on projects. Another one where the last post on the blog was over 3 years ago.

With all the chatter around Dragon Rampant 2 and keeping with the theme of getting s**t done this month the focus continues to be on random stuff. 

These Oathmark Orcs, they were a Christmas present and were put together in the summer so have been on the to do list for almost a year. 

The box art was lovely and I thought they would make useful additions to the forces of Mordred and the Excalibur project. They are slightly larger than the Knights but don't look to bad and will largely be in their own units on the table. A rich variety of head gear and weapons many fit that old school style which mirror that of the original Chaos Knights.

I was thinking about the origins of the Excalibur legend and lost several hours in reading Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory and thinking about the final battle at Camlann and what the foot troops might look like and these most certainly fit the bill.

I opted for a flesh tone rather than the common held green variant - They look better to my eye.

Using the mechanics of Lion Rampant or Dragon Rampant each knight from the Round Table could be a unit on there own against the mass ranks of Mordred's rebellious forces. So it should playout that heroic feel. - Let's see....

Lancelot and King Arthur find themselves in a spot of bother.

Chatting about scenario's with a buddy over a coffee he mentioned that they had a feel of the Blood Bath at Orcs Drift from the early the 80's.... it might be fun to dig out the scenario's even though the figures, booklet and buildings are long gone.

Strange how some projects just don't go away.

Fireforge Games- Christian Spearmen

Looking at the diary coming up and a planned club game in April it would appear that painting is going to be limited in the next couple of weeks. Especially with Alumwell looming large in a few weeks, so I am going to have to grab an hour here and there.

Fortunately a clear day in the last week has allowed me to complete a two more units for the Christian forces in the shape of  Christian heavy spear.

Following the same scheme as the warriors and crossbow men the occasional white or blue tunic to break up the linen and canvas shades together with a mix of shields with the occasional cross thrown in against the more traditional heraldic shield.

The two units are identifiable by one having the Norman kite shield while the others the straight top. But they could easily be mixed in together. 

I have added in a few with the Cross on the tunic to break them up a little and to use up a bunch of transfers that were in the box.

Really pleased with the general feel of these, but have a feeling that they won't fair well against the mass of Islamic horse archers. On the plus side the shields are really big....

Getting things done - February wrap up

Quick post this morning before heading out to the first show of the year Hammerhead....

Keeping up with the theme of getting stuff done, the last of Arab foot figures for the Crusades project.

These are from Gripping Beasts metal range, I followed the theme of the previous unit and given these chaps a more uniformed feel, still keeping with the occasional flash of Green or Purple. Spears have been swapped out to steel pins, far tougher but that little bit of jeopardy when you pick them up.

Shield Transfers are from Little Big Man Studios although I did have to a scalpel to a couple of banners to make shield transfers fit two of the mini's who's shields were oval shaped.

I suspect this will be used as Heavy Infantry with Lion Rampant and the more uniformed approach separating them out from their lighter comrades.

March should see the Christians hitting the paint table and hopefully the last of the Muslim cavalry.

If you are heading up to Newark today the Wyre Forest Club is running a game so feel free to drop by and say hello.

Gripping Beast - Arab Cavalry

Well here we are again...

The Cotswolds day seems a long time ago, but following the mantra of getting stuff done back to the remainder of the Gripping Beast Cavalry. They were prepped and under coated in bulk but have been staring at me across the room for 4 months... other projects kept pushing ahead of them. Time to bite the bullet.

Yet another light cavalry archer unit, get skirmish troops to pester the Christian column on their trek to the Holy City.

Next up a heavy cavalry unit with shield transfers from Little Big Man Studio. 

The shield transfers really bring the figures to life and are well worth the money. 

Finally the last of the Gripping Beast plastics are complete, they do go together really well, nice sculpts enough detail to standout, but not to much to slow down the painting.

Another couple of mounted units to go in metal, but next up some Black Guard types, I am hoping they can be turned around rather quickly, given the limited colours.

The Battle of Ascalon 1099 - Cotswold All Dayer - Part 1

36 Hours to go before the Cotswold all dayer.

The plan is a game based loosely on the Battle of Ascalon set during the 1st Crusade where the Christian Armies catch the Fatimid/Egyptian Army outside of Ascalon in August 1099.

Using Lion Rampant we will have 4 commands representing the Christians forces, with a further 4 Commands for the Arab forces.

Each command is 36 points strong with chits per command to decide on who takes each the first turn. It's been quite the effort over the last few weeks with two of us spending most evening ploughing through ranks of cavalry and spearmen. The Arab forces now out number the Christians by quite a margin.

A well deserved day off tomorrow as I wait for the Varnish to dry on three more cavalry units.

Gripping Beast Cavalry with shields from Little Big Man Studio

I am not a fan of painting cavalry and this was only meant to be a small project but I appear to now hold the largest collection of cavalry across all my collections with still another 4 units to make up and paint..... Not sure how that happened......

With another one of our merry band painting a similar number it should look quite intimidating for the Christian forces. Let's see if their Elite Norman cavalry can break through our mass ranks of horse archers and light cavalry.

Perhaps something green for a change next.... :-)

Outremer Arab Spearmen

Back to Outremer. 

Having decided on the plan for the next all dayer - It turns out we might be woefully short of Arab foot types. 5 weeks nothing like deadline to focus the mind.

Not usually a fan of plastics for gaming, I tend to lose bayonets and spears during regular game play, but you can't argue with the value for money. Gripping Beast offer 40 figures for £25.00 - 62p a figure can't be bad.

The box contains 8 sprues with enough to make a mixture of spear, bow and sword armed units together with command elements horns etc.

The Sprue contains 3 round shields and two teardrop so plenty of mix for the various units, while there may not be obvious leader types they are very useful to fill the ranks of generic warriors.

Good quality casts with minimal mold lines and and they detach really easily, limbs are pre-molded carrying spear or sword so construction is minimal.  

The Gripping Beast figures fit in well with other manufacturers hidden amongst the masses are a bunch of Footsore and some Black Tree Design

The shield designs are from Little Big Man Studio such a good time saver.

Next up more cavalry.

Perry Miniatures - Muslim Armoured foot.

 After a few weeks away time to get back on the brushes..

The seems to be a distinct lack of Islamic armoured foot in the market, these are from Perry's Crusades range and are very nice, they might be slightly larger than the Footsore castings but will be just fine in a unit on their own.

When used within Lion Rampant they form up in units of 6, which makes use of the pack from the Perry Twins, Shield designs are transfers from Little Big Man Studio, such a time saver.

Next up..... more Saracen heavy cavalry.

Arab Light Cavalry - Outremer

The Crusader project rolls on.

After the Christian Foot Knights time for some Arab cavalry, these have sat in the draw of shame for several years and the Outremer project is just the nudge needed to get these on the table.

I used Footsore shields to ensure they mix with the rest of the faction currently on the paint table, the decals are from Little Big Studio and are such a time saver, it's doubtful I could get even close to a similar output or standard.

The horses are a little larger than their Footsore counterparts, I will post up a comparison in a future post. But based up with scrub and scatter they will fit with the larger collection.

The Muslim forces are coming together nicely.

Footsore Arab Spearmen - Outremer States.

The Crusaders need someone to ride down.... after a couple of evening sessions the Arab Spearmen finally clear the paint table.

The garish colours once based and given a Army Paint Flesh wash blend rather well together, lovely castings as always from the guys over at Footsore so much character in their sculpts.

Still a little on the cold side for a matt varnish but that will help take the shine off the shields and help protect the decals - so much easier than trying to hand paint the shields with Islamic script.

Whilst it's take a little more time far better to get all the spearmen completed on in one group, with two groups of 8 and 4 swordsmen it gives me plenty of options on the table.

I have mixed the colours across the spearmen so they should come across as non-uniformed vs the more orderly Christian forces, although the pilgrims will be in a dull mix of browns and greens..

Really pleased how these have turned out itching to get them on the table top but will certainly need some better armoured support to stand up to the Knights Templar.

Nice to get a mention in the Footsore News letter this morning.

Toadily awesome (mailchi.mp)

High praise in need given the quality of the painting on the Baron's War Facebook group no pressure to the get the rest of the Kickstarter complete then.

The Outremer Fortified Hospital is up for auction on e-bay - not yet available on the Footsore site.

As much as I would love to get it made and painted the projects are backing up - Still in the box the Kickstarter came in.

Original price £200.00 but all reasonable offers considered.

Footsore Miniatures Barons War Outremer Fortified Hospital Crusader Fort | eBay