Viking Mercenaries/Gall-Gaedhill from the "1066 and All That" WAB Campaign Weekend

Thank you Google! Yeah, another "I never thought I be muttering such appreciative words about Google" post! 

I've been (painfully) cleaning out files from Google Drive and Gmail as in in order to avoid paying for more email storage space. A few days ago Google, in a vain effort to relieve me of funds, kindly informed me Gmail was about to run out of space. Most of the files were rubbish, stuff sent out to various individuals over the years, but I did find a couple of gems; some nice pictures taken at Warhammer World during the 1066 and All That WAB Campaign Weekend. I even remember the game! I was playing Big Jim Sweeney! (For the record, he won!). 

The pictures were taken with my first digital camera so the files aren't great but it was great to see the, now long gone, unit again!

You can tell they're old as they have obviously been varnished with Testors Dullcote. I would recognise that particular slight sheen on the figures anytime!

Th was hand painted and partially taken from the some of the artwork in the Shieldwall WAB supplement.

The unit was put together using mostly Gripping Beast miniatures from their Hiberno-Norse / Norse Gael (sadly some are no longer available) and Viking ranges as I was putting together a unit of Gall-Gaedhill from the Warhammer Ancient Battles Shieldwall supplement! They could also serve as a unit of Viking mercenaries for my Norman army. There are a few minor conversions, the guy with the big chopper having his foot placed on the casualty and some arm rearrangements so's to add a Dane axe or two (the casualty is from Perry Miniatures Crusades pack CU29 Dead and Wounded). 

The dark brown basing came about after a phone conversation with Darren Harding discussing different soil colours he had noticed while shooting around the country in the Beast's van. From memory, I know the base coat was W&N Galleria Burnt Umber, then a Citadel medium brown (the name completely escapes me but from the early 2000's) and lastly a Citadel orange brown (again, apologies but the name escapes me again).

For those who want to take a closer look, all the images are "clickable".

Here's the unit again after rebasing and going for a grey tone in an attempt to get the ground to contrast with the snow effect. Looking back I would say that this particular attempt at contrasting snow with grey earth failed. I would have been better off sticking with the original basing.... :>)

Perry Hundred Years War Scenic Pictures SESWC 2011

Another blast from the past as revealed to me while I was messing about trying to delete as many pdf's and photo's from my Gmail account in order to avoid paying for storage!

This time some really nice pictures taken by my good friend, and at the time fellow SESWC club compatriot David Imrie way back in 2011, which was, I think, the same year the Perry's released their range(?).

And wonderful  it is to behold the pictures again; I was 100% convinced these pictures had died on an old laptop. 

All images are of course, "clickable"

Anglo Danish Shieldwall Markers

Following on from the converted Early Byzantine Command Stands/Bases and the unit of Anglo Danes I decided to put hope back over to the 11th Century and put together some Shieldwall Markers for the Year of Three Battles epic that was 1066. 

The markers are, unsurprisingly, designed to sit in front of the units to indicate whether the unit is advancing at speed or more slowly, maintaining the protection of their Boardweal. I wanted to see how a few of the markers would look standing to the fore of a few units, to get a feel for what they are going to look like on the tabletop- and, if I'm honest,to see if I had wasted my time with the brush or not!

The miniatures are all very old Gripping Beast models which were a bit difficult to paint in places due to bits of the moulds coming away in places which results in blobs of metal that are extremely hard to remove without risking ones digits! I've bought recent Gripping Beast castings that have been vastly  higher quality so I'm putting it down to the casti gs being over 20 years old and bad luck/timing on my part.

                                                                Shieldwall Marker 2:

Shieldwall Marker 3:

Shieldwall Markers as they will Function on the Tabletop:

Here we have the markers sitting in front of three units. The effect of having one marker sitting on one unit is minimal; it does the job bit doesn't look too impressive. I thin,k when the markers really come into their own and become more visually impressive is when they are placed in front of two or three units. 

All the images are large files and worth clicking if you want to get view of what, part of the army, would look like when deployed onto the tabletop.

Swordpoint Rules MASTER Class. *BUILDING AN IMPERIAL LATE MEDIEVAL ARMY ADDED* UPDATE- 24-10-2022

 In an effort to learn the Swordpoint rules, without being able to play any games and having to rely on my "senior moment" memory and the rulebook without any practical experience (threat to my life by presented by Covid has sadly prevented this), these videos from Martin at Gripping Beast are just what the doctor ordered- to use an inappropriate pun!

Very much looking forward to more, perhaps even a whole game with a birds eye view of the action

Swordpoint Rules available HERE.

Swordpoint Downloads/Errata/FAQ's Available HERE.

Swordpoint Forum is HERE.

Swordpoint Rules MASTER Class -A guide by the Author. Part 1 - Movement

Swordpoint Rules MASTER Class -A guide by the Author. Part 2 - Shooting

Swordpoint Rules MASTER Class -A guide by the Author. Part 3 - Combat

Swordpoint Rules MASTER Class -A guide by the Author. Part 4 - Commanders

Swordpoint Rules MASTER Class. *BUILDING AN IMPERIAL LATE MEDIEVAL ARMY ADDED* UPDATE- 24-10-2022

Converted Early Byzantine Command Bases

I wanted to create a few command bases specific to each unit of Unarmoured Skutatoi, of which I have two completed units and another on the way. The problem is, like most ranges of miniatures there is a finite number of miniatures, even in the extensive Aventine Early Byzantine range. I did however want the Unarmoured Command bases to consist of purely unarmoured miniatures to match the units with and preferably with a different look than the other Aventine Early Byzantine command packs.

The first base was simply a repositioning of the arm of  the standard bearer from a miniature running forward from one of the Unarmoured Spearmen packs. After repositioning the arm, filling in the gap with ProCreate putty is was just a simple matter of adding a Draco standard I had ready and undercoated. 

From a practical point of the command stands being moved around on the tabletop without the protection or larger bases or movement trays I have stuck with Draco Standards in all my command bases as opposed to hand painted banners. It would be soul destroying to damage and have to replace a hand painted paper banner after a game. 

 Command Base 2:

What we have in the image below is the basic look of the animated base. An officer and banner bearer charging forward, the officer barking out commands to to his subordinate. The bases are on 50mm diameter "rounds" and is enough space on the base so the miniatures interact with one another to my satisfaction. 

And Coloured In:

The Running Unarmoured Skutatoi Base should sit well with the unit below:

Command Base 3:

The second conversion was a little more intricate. I had to clip off the banner from the hand and the side of the head before sawing the head off with a razor saw. During this process there is inevitably some damage that occurs to the torso of the miniature. I was pleased to note that by filing sway at any unwanted cuts I was able to limit the ProCreate stage to just adding a broach after re-filing the cloak back into a plausible shape. Next I took one of the spare heads from the Aventine Miniatures BYZ12 Command Variation 1 packs, drilled heavily into the neck and glued the had into place. The pole for the Draco comes from an unwanted North Star Steel Spear pole, sans spearhead. It was then quite a simple job of just drilling and gluing the Draco into place.

And Coloured In:

Again, the Standing Unarmoured Skutatoi Base should sit well with the unit below: