Friday Night Games: 10mm Hussite Mini Campaign - Week 2

A set of photos showing Week 1 of  Mat's Hussite mini campign run 17/1/26 through 31/1/26 at Ruperts Gaff. Mat was umpire whilst the two Mikes played the Hussites and Dave, John, Steve & Mark played the Bohemians. All figires from Mat's collection.

AHPC XIV: From Mike W - 10mm Flodden English, 28mm Odds & Ends, Betonnians and more....

 Well I can't believe that we are drawing into the last full week of this year's Challenge, there is so much stuff on my worbench that I won't get done in time, so as a result, I'll press on with some of my favourite projects and try and finish off those that I have the best chance of getting completed in time! As such I guess we now go into Free Fire mode with posts so hopefully I'll get 1 or 2 more posts done by the cut-off date/time.

English Horse in line of column

First off we have a small batch of 14 x 10mm English Cavalry for my Flodden project. These figures appear to be 'Border Lancers', common on both sides of the English / Scots conflicts for many centuries. As these came with my Pendraken English Army starter pack, I have painted these up as an English unit. However, I intend to get some more of these tiny guys and create a few additional command bases so that these can be deployed similar units on both sides in the future campign / game.

I opted to place four figures to a base, these were light cavalry, reserving five figures to a base for any heavy cavalry I might get in the future. You will notice that I found only 14 figures in the starter pack (one seems to be missing) I have a partially completed base to go with the three bases for the unit pictured.

And in line of battle!

I have also broken with Warmaster tradition and mounted my horse figures in line, rather than column on these bases - my thinking being this is a little more historically accurate.

Two additional figures, awaiting some re-enforcements to join them as described above

Anyway the painting techniques were as previously described, I used various GW Contract paint for the horse flesh and Army Painter Holy White to do the two grey horses. Basing with fine sand and various tufts and electrostaic grass to complete.

Next up is a vignette depicting St. George slaying the Dragon, these are a 28mm figure pack presented free to attendees of a past Salute Wargames Show in  London, these figures were kindly given to me by my friend Dave, as part of the bundle that inclded last week's Dark Ages figures.

St. George fights the Dragon

View of the stricken horse being wrapped-up by the dragon

Another view

The figures were undercoated in grey an then dry-brushed white and then tackled one at a time. First off, I did the stricken horse, most of the imagary that I could find of St. George has him riding a white horse, so I opted for this classic depiction, I built up the whiteness of the horse with washes of thinned down white paint.

I chose to have the saddle blanket in blue as a contrast to the horse flesh and St. George himself, the horse's leather work was done, not unnaturally with Army Painter Hardened Leather, .

Better view of the shield carrying his distinctive red cross

Next the dragon, a classic green colour for it's top half, using GW Algae Green, I then dry brushed this with white before using AP Orc Skin to give a bright green colour to it's spinal scales and the larger scales on it's side and feet / claws. I used a watered down creamier colored green on the dragon's wings before washing with AP Green ink - this representing the msotly skin type flesh on these wings.

I painted the underbelly of the dragon yellow and washed this with GW Skeleton Horde to tone it down a little.

Final shot from above

St.George was again done in classic garb, I wanted his clothing to be predominantly white, so it is! But the figure is mostly chainmail clad, so I used GW Leadbeltcher on this and then AP Hoplite Gold on the armour scales to give St. George a noble feel. His cloak had to be red!

He carries a kite shield with a classic red, cross of St.George on it. Chainmail was washed in dark tone ink and the plate armour was washed in AP Flesh Tone, to give depth and shading.

I attached the figures to an MDF base and added some slate chips from the garden to give additional texture to the base. Then my usual fine sand, tufts and electrostaic grass mix to finished it off. I'm pleased with the result, it was a fn mini project to do.

In terms of points its not a high scorer, I'm placiming 10 points if everyone agrees - 1 x 28mm figure plus 2 x prone animals at 2.5 Points each! I'll let my minion adjudicate if this is fair!

Next we have 8 x Bretonnian figures for Warhammer Fantasy, these were found alongside the Bretonnian Archers I painted earlier this challenge. These guys are depicted as a militia unit - maybe a city guard - armed with various pole arms. There is a Corporal with the group armed with an axe plus a drummer and an officer, with an outragious moustache! Lastly I have pained up one of the figures as a Bretonnian priest, carrying a holy banner.

The completed Bretonnian group

The flag is actually based upon an image of a christmas card that I found online, suitably adapted it takes on th eguise of a holy banner pretty well.

The City Guard group, four spearmen and a corporal with a axe

I painted these using the same apprach as described for my oringinal batch of archers, I decided that the warror priest should have blue robes with white under-robes, maybe to signify his purity!? All figres painted and based in my usual manner.

Close-up of the City Gard Officer and his outragious moustache

One point of note on these Bretonnians is that I long ago lost their shield arms - ths I have pressed alternatives in frm eth bits box, these are Dark Ages shield armss, I'm not sure who manufactured these but t wold be Gripping Beast, Vitrix or Conquest Games...

Drummer, with inscription on the gold shield on the drum

Warrior Monk, with Holy Banner

Another break here and I present my last Female Gue'Vesa Tau warrior, I was holding her back for one last Lady Sarah's Trolley dash, but I can't really figure out how to use it in this last week so here goes!

Female Tau Gue'Vesa

This figure is again based upon a Wargames Atlantic Eisenkern Stormtrooper figure, with GW Tau weapon and Arm Pad added to gve it th eright look and feel. This person also has a Eisenkern female head, which sports a natty cap.

Another view

The figure is painted and based in the way that I have previously described for my Tau Army.

Next I have six 28mm Norman Crossbowmen from Victrix, these guys are lovely little sculpts and were a joy to paint. Again these will be fielded at my forthcoming Hastings game,, where they will help bolster my Norman Misslemen!

Completed group of NormanCrossbowmen

Figures were undecoated grey then drybrushed white, hands and faces getting extra attention wit heth white paint. GW Darkoath Flesh was used on hands and faces, then highlighted with AP Barbarian Flesh. All Chainmail and metal was done in GW Leadbeltcher and then various clours used to finish 'dressing' these guys. Leatherwork was completed with AP Hardened Leather before highlights were added.

Head on close-up of three guys

and their side view

The remaining three figres in close-up

With side view, the guy pulling his crossbow on the left would in my opinion get a little repetitive if I'd purchased a whole pack of these guys.

Next pair of fgures is another Salute figure give away (again thanks to Dave) depicting Arthur fighting Mordred, these guys are both on foot and are depicted in Anglo-Roman grab. Good old King Arthur (the once and future King of England!) has been depicted much like I did St. George, Mordred was done in complimentary / contrasting colours.

Mordred & Arthur going at it!

I'm assuming this is Mordred,  he's wearing a full face mask that is part of his helmet

And good King Arthur

Anoher figure that I have just been able to complete is a 28mm War of teh Roses Man-at-Arms, this is an old Front Rank figure that I've had for absolutely ages. I gave him a simple Green and White quartered livery. His legs are protected by plate armour and I would guess that he has a plate breastplate under his livery shirt as well.

WoR Man-at-Arms

with a rear view

Friday Night Games: Hussite Wars

For his game on 7th July  Mat had prepared a challenging 10mm Hussite Wars game, pitting Mike N. and Mike W. and the Hussites against an Imperialist force played by Dave, Phil, Rupert and Steve.

The two Mike's Wagon lines bridge between a forest line on their right and marshland to the left.
Dave's Imperial Horse can be seen approaching the Hussite lines

The action started with Rupert and Dave advancing their battles to fireclay engage with the Hussite battles.

Meanwhile, Steve followed Phil's cavalry battle around the edge of the world, on the Hussite left, with the aim of crashing into their unsuspecting rear rank.

Dave's cavalry, was first to engage with Mike W's battle, after a couple of rounds of shooting and melee, Dave's command routed from the fray.

Rupert's tardy battle, with organ guns on their front right and,
missile men to their left and mounted knights to their rear

Whilst Dave's command forged ahead, as the knights went impetuous after taking some casualties, Rupert kept his battle on a tight leash and they edged forwards at a slow rate.

Meanwhile the rear Steve's cavalry command emerged from eth forests and descended on to the flank of the small Hussite Cavalry command, which immediately broke and left the field, pursued by Steve's cavalry command!

Mike N, redeployed his Wagon line to face the rear, creating an arched laager against the forest line at the edge of the world.

Hussite Wagon Laager

Eventually Phil's cavalry command emerged from the woods and advanced upon the Hussite lines as Mike N was completing his redeployments, however Mike was able to send a few shots into the advancing horse,, who thought better of the situation and retired out of range.

And there the battle ended for eth evening, wit the Imperialists unable or unwilling to attack the wagon laager and the Hussites unable to sally forth and attack the Imperialists.

A closer view of the Hussite Laager

AHPC X, - From MikeW: 5 x 1/144 (10mm) Israeli Super Sherman Tanks (15 Points)

A cheeky group of Israeli Super Shermans.

Extracted from my Lead Mountain were these 5 Sherman M4A4 tanks that where the basis for the Israeli M50/51 Super Shermans that paid an important role in both the 1967 and 1973 Wars.

Undercoated and awaiting attention!

I think these models were from Minifgs - though I may well be wrong!

So very quick job to build and to undercoat in white before leaving to dry overnight.

I've always had problems getting the correct shade for my Israeli vehicles - it seems to range from too brown to too green, too light to too dark. These were no exception!

I guess it would be easiest to go and buy a pot of paint that is the right colour - but as I do these figures in such a sporadic manner - I have never done that. So this time I painted a base colour of mid brown and then mixed a greenish, greyish colour to use to wash over.

Not overly happy with final colours

Unfortunately the paint dried very quickly and the wash became pretty much another coat - it seems about right when I added the white combat markings.

I usually get all OCD about having straight lines when doing vehicle markings - until I found out that the Israelis actually painted these markings on by hand and literally scrubbed them off and repainted on a fairly regular basis to keep everyone guessing what they meant. Clever!

Lots of stowage on each tank

So I use a white pen to literally draw on the markings and then I outline with an ultra-fine black pen, before varnishing the markings to keep them in place.


I then gave the models a wash of Dark tone - which was a bit of a mistake, as they got - well - very much darker!

I had to go in and do some dry brushing to lighten the models up again, end result is passable but probably not very Israeli looking - too grey and dark.

When mixed with other Shermans in my collection - they will stand out. Maybe I'll say that they are brand new off the production line and haven't had time to fade yet....

POINTS
5 x 10mm Vehicles @ 3 Points each = 15 Points

Off the Work bench - Mike W, 26/01/18

Today 26th January 2018, with what's OFF MY WORKBENCH.

Royal Piemont Cavalry,command elements

Second Squadron

As hoped I completed the French 'Royal Piemont' Cavalry regiment this week, 12 mounted figures in 2 squadrons of six to represent this Piedmont (Italian) regiment in French service. Figures are 28mm North Star 1872 cavalry figures, 

I find cavalry figures a little tricky to paint  - in so much as do you paint the horse, then the man? - do you glue the man to the horse before or after painting? For what its worth, with these figures I glued the man to the horse then painted the horse and then the man...

... with Front Rank 28mm mounted figures I paint the horse and man separately then glue them together. I think its to do with the saddle furniture on Front Rank figures being part of the man's sculpt, rather than being on the horse! I prefer doing them separately as I can get more detail onto the saddle cloth etc!

Blue coats and red linings & cuffs make this a different looking unit to line up with the rest of the French army and as I have done the usual trick of not gluing standards in pace - the unit can be re-purposed if required for specific scenarios in the future.

Again I have not yet applied the final spray coat of Matt Varnish to the figures, hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be able to have a 'Spray Fest' and get all the outstanding units seen to - 35+ mounted and some 160 foot in total at this stage - at a  guess!

The other unit finished this week was the 10mm Scots Common Army Schiltron, 30 spear armed figures...

10mm Scots Common Army

So what's ON MY WORKBENCH.

Royal Italien uniform & Standards

Unpainted metal awaiting clean-up!

I have added a new unit of 28mm French 1672 figures from North Star, I intend to paint these up as the 'Royal Italien' regiment of Foot, to serve with their Piedmontese mounted cousins. The unit was raised in 1671 by Comte Magalotti, a former Captain in the Garde Francais, so impressed was Louis XIV wit the unit he immediately gave them the 'Royal' Prefix! Uniforms look interesting, brown coats lined red with red socks and pants, illustration courtesy of Wargames Illustrated and Mark Allen's wonderful series on French Army uniforms from the late 1980s. (I think!) .   

More astute readers will have noticed that this post is somewhat earlier than usual, we will be away for a few days so the next post will be in two weeks - to allow me time to catch-up on the metal piles....