More Fantasy Figures

The last couple evenings I’ve been working on some more fantastical figures.

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Finally got around to finishing up the latest batch of Descent figures for my pal John in Calgary. maybe one of these days he’ll take some PICTURES of his games and post them on his blog so you can see them in ACTION!!!


These are some GW plastic Elves. I’ve mixed some old (OLD!) wood elves on a base with a High Elf Lotharin Sea Guard as a commander. I ended up with 30 of the Wood Elves and six of the Sea Guard – as I’m making stands of six and units of three stands… this wasn’t a really useful combination until I realized If I stuck one of the sea guard front and center on each stand like a captain I’d end up with six stands (2 full units). So I painted one up to see if they’d work together. I think it turned out not-so-bad, being painted all the same colour kind of ties them together nicely…


These are some newer GW dwarfs from the new Skull Pass boxed set. I picked them up off ebay pretty cheap. They paint up nice enough and pretty quick too! I have enough for two units (6 stands). So I may crack these out first, just to fill out the ranks and then add or replace them with the Ghost Miniatures elements when I’ve got more time.


A pair of Reaper Miniatures Elvish nobility/wizards ready for some Savage Worlds skirmishing. Hmmmmm, in this close up shot that Elfie Queen looks like she's got a bit of a sneer going on or something.


I also made a magneto-stand for them so I can use them as one of my Elvish magicians in Hordes of the Things.

Working on some Elvish Knights next, then maybe a couple more spear for the Saxons - to finish them up! then I really ought to get cracking on some orcs... or finish off the elves... Of course by then some MORE Descent figures will probably have arrived for me to paint... we shall see...

Chugging Along

I finished up another batch of Anglo-Saxons another unit of Thegns/Fyrd for Warmaster Ancients or another three stands of Spear for DBA or Hordes of the Things

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This is a great mix of figures… There’s some Old Glory, Gripping Beast, some old, old Citadel in the back…. Probably some others I can’t think of…


I also did a couple spares (well, I didn’t have ANY spares with SPEARS…) for either skirmishing or “change” for stands if I ever fell on my head and inflicted the kind of brain damage that would be required for me to play Warhammer…. Oooh… Now that may have been a bit offside… sorry… my head HURTS and I’m feeling a little crusty this morning… it’s still morning, right….?

What I’ve Been Up To

For any that have been paying attention the surgery went fine, but I can’t really sit down, so this will be brief. Here are a few things I finished up in the last couple days before going under the knife.

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A unit of Bondi – By “unit” I mean for Warmaster Ancients. It will probably see more service in the immediate furutre as three stands of “Blade” in a Viking DBA/Hordes of the Things army… I think the’re all from Old Glory…. Oh except the horn-blower, I think he’s from Essex


This is an ancient Orc catapult. I think it was made by Grenadier and I’ve had it for… oh… 18 years or so…!? It was for my original Warhammer Orc army. It’s been sitting in a half painted state ever since… I painted the catapult in the last year of so, the Orcs Crew I painted this week and put it on a base – Now my Warmaster/Hordes of the Things Orc army has an Artillery option…. Actually come to think of it, this is the ONLY stand I have finished for my Orc Warmaster/Hordes of the Things army. Oh dear, I have some work to do.


Some assorted singles I finished up, from left to right; Crusader Miniatures Saxon Commander, Gripping Beast Viking, Some GW hero-type, an I-kore/Celtos Gael hottie….


Not recent paints, but I did re-base these to be a command stand for Warmaster Ancients.

I think I best go lie down now. I’ve been doing much thinking and planning for the Hordes of the Things campaign but I’ll have to post those thoughts some other time…

The Dark Ages

Hairy men in chain mail… Who doesn’t LOVE this era! Someday I want to run a 1066 campaign weekend. Friday night – Fulford Gate (just to get warmed up), Saturday morning – Stamford Bridge (Harald vs. Harold!), Saturday evening – Hastings (Normans vs. Whoever won Stamford) , and on Sunday… Some battle where the winner of Hastings goes and thumps (or tires to thump..) some Scotts or Irish…

I’d also though I’d like to do an extended campaign using the simple DBA campaign system with a player each controlling the Normans, Norse, English, Welsh, Scotts, and Irish… and maybe one controlling “other franks”… Originally it was my intention to do this with 15mm DBA armies… but they’re gone now… and that’s okay because I’ve still got these 28mm guys, though I am far from owning the necessary forces for either of the above – I’ll get there someday…

Like my Successors and The English Civil War armies I am planning to use these with Warmaster Ancients (and maybe DBA or Warhammer Ancients) So I am using my new standard basing system for multi-figure bases - with any leftovers being based on washers for skirmish gaming or “change” for stands if I ever use Warhammer.

Alright, here’s what I’ve got so far…

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Two units of Saxon Huscarls. These are mostly Old Glory with a couple Gripping beast thrown in.

Now anyone that knows me knows that I think all points systems are BALLS – but I have to admit when approaching a completely new system I sometimes figure out what I was planning on making would be in points and compare it to the min/max limits at various point levels etc – just to see if things are way out of whack with what the designers thought appropriate for proportional amounts of various troop types… Well… None of these armies I have amount to more than 1000 points and Huscarls are listed as maximum one unit per full 1000 points… oh dear… Anyway that’s my 3x 4Bd all taken care of for a DBA Anglo-Danish army.


These are figures I modeled and cast myself. I think this was, in fact, one of, in not THE, very first figure I modeled. I have since re-mastered it with a separate (BIGGER) shield. They have to be re-based. I’ll use these as “Great Fyrd” in Warmaster Ancients. There’s 55 of them, with a few new command figures thrown in I should be able to put together 12 stands (4 units!).


Here’s what the re-mastered figure looks like – I don’t have any fully painted just yet. These don’t have my own shields – these were extras from the various Old Glory packs. Mine looks similar to the round one – very plain, round shield with a metal center bit… I forget what they’re called… I can cast piles of these any time I want… So when I get back into working on this project I’ll crank


Except for the two Harlequin/Black Tree Design figures these are again all home-casts that I could make piles of. There’s no Bow in either the Middle Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Danish lists, just Psiloi… I think I’ll base these as I would 3Bw – four to a base – as Warmaster Ancients allows “Archers”. This will then make 2 units. I think I’d rather my Psiloi/Skirmishers have slings and/or javelins.


Assorted Command – There’s a mix of Old Glory and Gripping Beast here, maybe even a Halequin/Black Tree Design horn blower over on the left there.


Well I think I was thinking these would be Thegns in Warhammer Ancients. There are no Thegns in Warmaster however… so I guess it’s ANOTHER unit of Huscarls… When I finish getting them re-based.


So back when I started home casting those guys I ordered some Saxon command and some Huscarls from Old Glory Canada in Toronto. I figured the chain mail was a bit beyond my modeling skills at that point so I’d just buy them as I didn’t need too many. When my order arrived they has “accidentally” sent Saxon Casualties instead of the Huscarls… and a note that said “as of [two weeks before parcel arrived] we will no longer be in business”… I wonder if they just didn’t have the huscarls and just “accidentally” threw in the casualties “by mistake” so they wouldn’t have to issue me a refund check… ah well… they’ve been fun to throw on to stands, here and there…


Assorted Saxons to paint. Some Gripping Beast Thegns, some BTD fyrd or skirmishers, some of my own “generic dark ages spearmen”… not quite enough of anything to make a unit. Perhaps they’ll all get mounted on washers and be used in skirmish games. Well, not MY guys – I’ll just cast some more and make full units of them.


Assorted Dark Age Command – on the left are mostly Saxon, some Scotts below them at the bottom, an Norse on the right. I’m not so keen on the Saxon commander on the to left – he looks like he’s singing in a frickin opera! Ah well…


Again Two units of Norse Hirdmen when I only really need one…. (wait for it…) I think these are ALL Old Glory.


One unit of Bondi – all Old Glory, except for the horn blower which I think if from Essex…


These are ancient Citadel and Ral Partha figures I’ve been using as skirmishers – and will continue to do so! These will be based three to a stand and will make 2 units…. Once I paint up another figure for each unit…


Assorted Command – Old Glory, Gripping Beast, and Essex. Some will be added to unit stands of figures whenever I get around to painting them up… some may be based together on a big round metal washer to use as command elements.


Assorted odds and sods. Some may be added to unit stands other will be kept on single bases for skirmish games. These are Old Glory and some more really old Citadel Miniatures (which have recently been stripped and re-painted).


More old figures – the ones on the left are old Citadel, the ones on the right are Ral Partha. The Citadel figures will, at some point, be stripped, their axes repaired, and repainted and added to unit stands…


Ulfhednars and berserkers. I was a little surprised to see that you can have entire units of berserkers in Warmaster Ancients… I guess they had to include then somehow. Well these will be the beginning of one such unit. The Ulfhednars are from Gripping Beast, the Berserks are from Essex.


Valkyries – Wiking Varrior Vimin… I couldn’t help myself… The hottie in the center is another old, old Citadel miniature; the beauties flanking her are more recent Wargames Foundry figures.


Berserks and valkyries to be painted. The Valkyries on the let I have no idea where they came from… the Berserks next to them are from Old Glory, more Ulfhednars from Gripping Beast, and more Valkyries from the Foundry.


More odds and sods – Viking Raiders from Old Glory.


Remember when I said “wait for it”… Here’s why – THREE MORE units of Hirdmen…! I think at least one of these units I will disperse among the units of Bondi as “better off” bondi…


Here’s the rest of the Bondi – six units of them- with the dispersed hirdmen that will make seven to paint - for a total of eight.


The Scotts. These are mostly Old Glory with a few Gripping Beast cavalry thrown in. Lacking an actual Warmaster list I’ll have to BS something together based on the DBA lists and the Warhammer Ancients: Shieldwall lists.

The cavalry will probably be based three per base (rather than two for light cavalry/mounted skirmishers) as they all have chain mail and thus I figured they’d be some sort of Noble Cavalry like mounted thanes or Toisech from Shieldwall or the 3Cv in the DBA Pre-Feudal Scotts list.

I also have enough in this bin for two units of guys with axes and two units of gusy with spears. That’d be the 4Wb and 3Sp, respectively, in the DBA list. In Shieldwall I think I was planning on using them as Gall-Gaedill (Scotts-irish mercenaries) and Soer-chele, respectively. Not sure what they’re going to be in Warmaster…. Probably call them both “medium Infantry”


The only Scotts I’ve gotten around to painting so far. I thought I might use this as a General. But if I’m using three per base for the cavalry I’ll be two short…. I guess I could get another pack….


The Welsh. All I have is Archers right now, Sixty of them. They’re from Old Glory. Unfortunately for the time period I’m playing both DBA and Shieldwall list welsh archers as skirmishers. My plan for skirmishers was to base them 3 to a base. That would give me 20 stands – six units. Do I really need that many units of skirmishers!? Probably not. Maybe They’ll be leant out to other armies – or I’ll make an early feudal/medieval Welsh army as well and make a couple units of massed bow.

I’ll need some sort of light infantry for the Welsh. Maybe re-master my Saxon fyrdman with a barehead and a cloak… then cast hundreds and call them Welshmen!


The Irish. I have about two units of guys with two-handed axes and no armour. In DBA the Irish are pretty much all classed as Auxillia or Psiloi, with an option for some Blade… Comparing to Shieldwall I imagine the Blade would be the “Fianna” (or maybe some Norse mercenaries…?), the Auxillia would be the “Bonnachts”, and the Psiloi would be the “Kerns”. I think these lads will be the “Fianna” and classed as Medium infantry and maybe “warband”. For “Bonnachts” I’ll have to make myself some irish light infantry (which I’ll base four to a stand), and for “Kerns” some skirmishers (three to a stand) at some point…

I kind of like the idea of having a unit of Irish Wolfhounds… Not sure how historical that would be… maybe call them “skirmishers”?


The Sheep. I had this idea of running a skirmish campaign sort of based on Mordheim except instead of looking for shards of wyrdstone you’d be stealing sheep from your neighbors…


Here’s the painted Normans… Long way to go… The fully painted ones are old Wargames Foundry figures, the primed one is from Gripping Beast.


All Gripping Beast, not even enough for a unit.. Now that he dollar is close to the US dollar it might be time to order some Old Glory Norman Cavalry..! (…or find something I could trade to CVT for his!)

So tallying things up, here’s THE PLAN

Anglo-Saxons
1 General might get Crusader DAS-10 Personalities Harold and Tostig for this…
2 Eorls – Use some command figures I’ve got… 2 To Paint!
2 Chieftans? – Use some command figures I’ve got… 2 To Paint!
3 Units of Huscarls – DONE! (well… one has to be re-based)
4 Units of Great Fyrd – to be re-based
2 Units of Archers – to be re-based
6 Units of Fyrd – need to cast and paint!

Norse
General - Use some command figures I’ve got… To Paint (or re-base)!
Warlord - Use some command figures I’ve got… To Paint (or re-base)!
Cheiftan - Use some command figures I’ve got… To Paint (or re-base)!
4 Units of Hird – 2 Done, 2 To Paint
2 Units of Skirmishers – to be re-based
1 Unit of Berserkers – to be painted
8 Unis of Bondi – One DONE, 7 to paint!


Scotts
General – DONE!
Warlord - ?
Cheiftan - ?
2 Units of
2 Units of Mounted Toisech (Medium Cavalry) – to be painted, need one pack of GB cav
2 Units of Gall-Gaedill (Scotts-irish mercenaries with axes – medium infantry)
2 Units of Soer-chele ( with spears– medium infantry)
2 Units of Eachraidh (Mtd Skirmishers/LH) Need to get GB 3xGBCEL-07 Unarmd Cav
Need to make generic spearman and cast piles for more Soer-Chele or Doer-Chele
Maybe I'll borrow a dozen or so welsh archers and call them bow-armed scottish skirmishers...

Irish
Um…
General…? Have one…
2 Units of Fianna (Medium Infantry) – need to paint
Need to make generic irish warrior with spear/Javelin for Bonnachts (light infantry – 4/base) and Kerns (skirmishers – 3/base)

Welsh
Generals and Leaders – need to get…
6 Units of Bow-Armed Skirmishers… I have enough… just need to paint…
Need to make Generic Light infantryman and cast piles….


Normans
General – TO Get – Crusader DAN-110 William and Bishop Odo
Where to start…?
Need to get:
Knights – each old Glory bag would make one unit... four maybe…? The extra figure in each pack could be mounted singly as a Commander.
“Retainers”…? Mounted Skirmishers…?
Need to make: Spearmen – 2-4 units – have figures to use as command to paint!
Need to cast: Archers – two units…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:
GAME PLAN 2008
More taking stock…

28mm English Civil War

Next in the pile of stuff to take stock of is my 28mm English Civil War collection. This collection has increase extensively very recently due to a very successful trade – I traded away eight 15mm DBA Dark Ages armies (three of which were fully painted) in exchange for… well, you’ll see… a LOT of Old Glory 28mm ECW stuff (thanks Mike!)

Originally I thought I’d use Warhammer: English Civil War – whenever I got around to playing, but (as you well know if you’ve been following the blog) I’m quite enamored with the whole Warmaster idea and imagine I’d like to use these for that… So my current plan is to bases them as per my new basing standards and have some extras on single bases for skirmishing or “change” for the stands If I play do ever end up playing Warhammer: English Civil War.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

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Now these lads are a touch smaller than the Old Glory – more like real “25mm” stuff. They’re actually figures I modeled and cast myself. Well actually I modeled them and my friend John cast them as I wasn’t set up for that when these were made… I’m not sure where the masters have gone to, I’m pretty sure I got them back from him. I hope he has the moulds as I’d like to cast some more someday…


A second batch of the above. These, with the ones pictured above, should make me ONE UNIT of pike and maybe two shot…


Old Glory Cuirassiers. One unit. Should be all I need, really. I’ll have one left over, he’ll become a commander of some sort.


These are the first ECW figures I ever bought. They’re old Wargames foundry figures that I ordered from England back before the internet based on descriptions and line drawings in a Wargames Illustrated add back in, oh, 1988…? Anyone remember those good old days? I wasn’t disappointed but never did get around to placing another order… didn’t really have the money at the time… or had different priorities… These will probably be kept as individually mounted figures for skirmishing – except the general, he’ll actually serve as a general. They’ll probably get touched up and re-based onto round washers at some point – including the general.


Here’s the stuff I got in trade. One of these I bought myself a while back – one of the Command Packs – I thought I’d use them with my home-cast rank and file.


My Highlanders! These boys have seen lots of action as a Mordhiem warband. Most of them are Old Glory, though I think there’s a couple of Dixon figures in the back there. Nice figures. Pain in the ass to paint – what with the tartan and all. But they do look nice when they’re done.


My Covenanters. All three of them….


The highlanders I have yet to paint. Again, mostly Old Glory but there’s a couple more Dixon and some Essex figures in there as well.


These are some old Minifigs Scotts. Probably more appropriate for the Thirty Years War.

So as I mentioned these will mostly be based as per my new basing standards. The foot will be on 60x40mm bases; pike will have 8/base, shot will have 6/base. The trouble is how many bases/stands per unit. The standard in Warmaster seems to be three. The one English Civil Warmaster variant I’ve found so far varies from that and had pike in units of four and shot in units of two…? Guess I’ll have to play it and find out how they work…

The Horse will be mounted three on a 60x50mm base and are 3 stands per unit.


So what I HAVE is:

16 painted and 16 unpainted home-cast pike (so far…) Which would make one unit if 4 stands/unit, or one and a start on a second otherwise.

16 painted and 16 unpainted home-cast shot (so far…) Which would make two units if 2 stands/unit, or one and a start on a second otherwise….

One unit of Cuirassiers to be finished.

The Old glory bags include:
2x ECW-2 Unarmoured Command
1x ECW-4 Pike Advancing Soft hat
1x ECW-7 Pike Advancing Montero Cap
1x ECW-9 Pike Buffcoat, Charging, Helmet
1x ECW- 11 Pike Buffcoat, Porte Pike, Helmet
1x ECW-12 Pike Buffcoat, Charging, Soft hat
1x ECW-19 Musketeer Firing Montero Cap
1x ECW-21 Musketeer Advancing Montero Cap
1x ECW-26 Cavalry Buffcoat Helmet
1x ECW-27 Cavalry Buffcoat Soft Hat
1x ECW-36 Royalist Personalities
1x ECW-53 Moss’ Troopers

So a total of 60 “command” (could be used in pike units or shot), 150 Pike, 60 shot.

That would make 5-7 units of pike – depending on whether using 3 or 4 stands/unit – and 4-6 units of shot, depending… any leftovers cold be individually based for skirmishing and/or “change”.

Each bag of Horse would be one unit with one left over to be a commander (or skirmisher)

The Highlanders I have 15 painted and 27 not-so-painted… the ones already painted and on washer I will leave as they are. 18 of the others will make one unit of highlanders… unless I base them as “hordes” which would be 7-9 figures on a 60x60mm base… hmmm…

Hmmmm… I have some guns somewhere, but no crew, which I didn’t manage to take a picture of.

The unfortunate bit is that the campaign I’d really like to play is Marquis of Montorse’s Scottish campaign… and there would have limited use… When I get around to the Englsih Civil War again I will model a couple Scottish pikemen and shot and maybe a highlander or two and cast them by the hundreds… That’s a “someday” project right now, though…

The Successors

Lookit me, I'm a blog-posting foo'!

Taking stock of a few more things we move on to my ancients stuff. This one was easy as NONE of it is painted yet!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

This is a pile of old Rafm “Armies of the Hellenistic Period” packs that a friend got from a distributor that was closing down. He more or less gave them to me and then asked if I’d paint a 15mm Greek DBA army for him in exchange… I have the army… I just haven’t painted it yet… (well… I THINK I still have it… somewhere!?). It’s been a few years not that they’ve bee sitting in a box under my work table.

Unfortunately I know NOTHING about the period. Originally I was thinking I’d paint these up someday and base them as per 25mm DBA armies. I’d probably get a few armies out of them. My good friend Mikey K was visiting earlier this year and helped me sort them out a bit. I made some notes on the packs as to what they might be and circled some armies in my DBA book and then put them back in the box…

Recently I picked up Warmaster Ancients and started thinking about these again and how I might make a WMA Successor army out of these using the basing system discussed in a previous post on Rules and basing. So with that in mind…..

Here’s what I’ve got in that pile pictured above, how I might use it, and some of the things I’d need to get… when I get around to painting these up:


1x AH-30 (of course these are old codes that Rafm doesn’e even use anymore – this one, for example is now RAF07130, but I’m just going to use the ones on the package…) Macedonian Prodomos with Kontos. I’m not sure what a “Prodomos” is… or a Kontos for that matter. But in DBA I imagine it would be 3Cv and Warmaster I’m going to call them “Heavy Cavalry”… not that I can do much with one pack…

7x AH-18 Illyrian Light Cavalry. Now that’s more like it… definitely 2LH or “Mounted Skirmishers”! Ten stands of them! (so, three units in Warmaster, I’d need one more pack to make four)

2x AH-38 Babylonian Levy Archer and 2x AH-39 Arab Archers. If I mixed the two I could make one unit of archers (using the 6/base system for regular troops…) the rest could become skirmishers…? Of course if I did them 4/base I could have a unit of each… hmmm….

1x AH-32 Greek Archer Kneeling – maybe mix with the left overs from the Arab Archers to make a unit of skirmishers…?

1x AH-24 Staff slingers… hmmmm…

2x Mysian Peltast – this will become one unit of 4/base “light infantry” – which I will call Ax if using DBA…

4x AH-15 Extra Heavy Companion Cavalry – Now “Extra Heavy” would lead me to think that they are heavier than heavy and therefore “Cataphract” in Warmaster ancients… However in the Rafm line there are “Cataphracts” which do look like they have even MORE armour on their horses… Whatever, they’re going on stands 3/base and will make me one unit and the beginning of a second (or some command stands, I guess…). Either way in DBA I’m sure they’re Kn.

3x AH-1 Imitation Legionnaire – Poof! One unit of Heavy Infantry – not normally “allowed” in a Successor army. Three stands of Bd in DBA.

2x AH-41 and 2x AH-42 Macedonian Pikemen (front and rear ranks) - One unit of Phalanx. These would be 8/base… or maybe 9 in three rows of three on a deeper base…? We shall see… In the latter case I’d need another pack… I’ll need more packs anyway as these are the foundation of Successor armies and I currently have only enough for about two phalanx.

3x AH-5 Phalangist in Quilted Armour and 2x AH-6 Phalangist in Asian Dress? Another Phallanx, possibly the beginnings of a third if I go with the 8/base. In the end I’ll probably do something REALLY stupid and decide I need to do 12/base on a 60x60mm base…

1x AH-43 Macedonian Hypaspis in Leather Armour. Not sure what they do what work but in the notes I made when Mikey K was here I need to paint them white with a silver shield and they might be Sp in DBA…

2x RA-10 Auxillary Slinger – okay this is getting into the “armies of the Caesars” line… still skirmishers are skirmishers (or Ps are Ps…). This would make a unit of them.

2x RA-57 Dacian Archers – again with the Romans and their enemies – more skirmishers…

So, tallying that all up for Warmaster I'd have:

3-4 Units of Mounted Skirmishers (Illyrian Light Horse)
1 Unit of Archers (Babylonian and Arab)
2 Units of Phalanx
1 Unit of Heavy Infantry (Imitation Legionaires)
1 Unit of Cataphracts (or Heavy Cavalry)
1 Unit of Light Infantry (Mysian Peltasts)
4-5 Units of Skirmishers (including the Greeks, Staff Slingers, Roman Auxillary Slingers and Dacian Archers...)

for DBA multiply by three... and add a Sp and Cv stand (Hypaspists and Prodomos)

Well I certainly have not shortage of Skirmishers! I do like to do two opposing armies at a time and I probably have enough skirmishers for both. When I ever do get around to painting these I will definitely need a pile of more pike/phalangists…

If anybody out there actually knows anything about the armies of this era and know that some of these definitely don’t belong in the same army together or I’ve categorized these wrong please, PLEASE do feel free to post a comment and set me straight!!