Partizan I Game Cancelled- Game will be at Partizan II :>(

It is with some regret that I have had to cancel the game for Partizan on May 16th this year. Time that must be spent increasingly with the health issues of some the older members of my family which inevitably has encroached on the amount of time I could dedicate to producing the game. Family first.

As you might have noticed on social media I toyed for a few weeks with setting up a different skirmish based game, Aedric the Wild, Battle of Shrewsbury 1069, but in the end it felt like I was going to be putting on a second rate game and just did not sit right with me. I think the right decision has been made at the end of the day.

Apologies to all who wanted to see the game (I am making the assumption that there are a few of you out there?) and to the organisers especially Richard Tyndall who has offered to send me an invitation for Partizan II.

The good news is that the Reconquista game will continue to be worked on and will be on show as a display game in October the 11th and Partizan II.

Reconquista at Partizan 2020, Horse Felled in Battle Conversion

I've recently had the Greenstuff out and have been playing around with how to get a horse, in this case a Gripping Beast beastie, to look as though it has been felled in battle as i have the perfect fallen man at arms figure courtesy of Wargames Foundry. I think I have done a half decent job considering that this was the first conversion of this type that I have attempted.

The horse and cavalryman will be taking their place in the first unit of Christian Spanish which has been specifically painted up for the demo game.

I rearranged the horses front legs by cutting a small wedge shape to allow me to bend the legs further back then very carefully bent the back legs into position using a light pair of pliers and plenty of old cloth to protect the soft metal from the teeth of the pliers. Any gaps in the legs were then filled with Greenstuff. The saddle was then sculpted, with the reigns and stirrups being sculpted separately then glued into place with superglue. Any blemishes in the cosmetics were then filled with Greenstuff.

The horse was then speed painted (time is getting short!) with a group of ten other horses. It took less than the hours I managed to fit in on a Sunday to get the horses painted, though they were prepped and undercoated etc prior to painting!

Here's a few pics. I would love to hear from anyone who has any tricks or tips on how to improve the work done here.

Reconquista at Partizan, Yusef ibn Tashfin's Hasham Guard Cavalry

Finally, the completion of another cavalry unit! This time it is the turn of Yusef ibn Tashfin's Hasham Guard Cavalry Regiment.

Heavy Cavalry such as the Hasham Guard were something of a rarity among the Berber tribes thus it is likely that the guard units were specially raised and trained as personal bodyguards to the Emir, Shaykh or Sayyid.  These units would not fight in the Christian style with their increasing tendency to couch the lance but rather with throwing spears and javelins albeit mounted on very sturdy horses. It is not clear as to whether the Hasham Guard units would use feigned flight as a tactic like many other Muslim cavalry types.

The cavalrymen are all Artizan Designs but the horses are all old Musketeer Miniatures (Now sold by Footsore Miniatures) as they have a superior look to them. The Footsore Miniatures are currently OOP but I have heard that they might be available again sometime this year- those that is not from the horses mouth (sorry :>) ). I was actually really surprised to see them OOP as I know Bill the sculptor reasonably well and I know that they were a range that was very close to his heart as they a his first sculpting passion of his. The prospect of having a Caliphate range available was one of his prime reasons for sculpting the range.

I have primarily used Vallejo paint but started with a Foundry Blue for the base of the miniatures cloaks, turbans and veils. The base for the Black is Andrea black which is wonderfully matt and a great base to start with when painting up a black robe. (It must be good as they have sold out of it in the Andrea online shop!) The protective layer of varnish is Humbrol Gloss Enamel with a final spray of Windsor and Newton Professional Matt Varnish to flatten things out. I find W&N to be the best matt varnish I have tried in all my years of painting (by a royal mile!).

Reconquista at Partizan, Christian vignettes II

Death from disease were a constant companion of all soldiers on campaign during the 11th Century. Dysentery, cholera, typhoid fever and even plague were to be the last fatal companions of many a stout soldier. Nor could rank safeguard from such epidemics that could strike at the heart of an army.

The knight below is in his final agonising death throws as cholera takes his soul. A washer woman tries to offer him comfort whilst a priest prays, perhaps as much for for himself as he does for his companion now that cholera and dysentery have broken out in the camp!

This piece is made up of Perry Miniatures from their Crusades range and was painted up using Vallejo Model Colour paints then given a Humbrol Enamel Gloss protective coat followed by a coat of Windsor and Newton Professional Artists Spray, which gives the flattest of matt finishes.

Reconquista at Partizan 2020, Christian Vignettes I

Hi,

I've been working on a few larger units while simultaneously having the odd vignette sitting at the side of the table to work on if I'm waiting for anything to dry, that sort of thing.....

Here's the first, a Bishop blessing a Caballero Villanos (poor knight) who were quite often taken from the upper peasantry and were likelier still to come from a border region where there was often conflict, or the threat of, mainly in the form of raids. These border zones on the Spanish peninsular were not, as one might assume, necessarily borders between the religious principalities. They could just as easily be a border between two Christian 'nations' or two Muslim kingdoms.

The paints used were all Vallejo with a few of their Panzer Aces range thrown in for good measure. I don't paint exclusively with one company or another but my bread and butter are Vallejo model, Game, Panzer Aces and Andrea paints with Foundry as back up. I'm slowly letting my Foundry pots diminish as I don't think the quality of their current paints is anywhere near as good as the original sets. In fact, some are unusable. The palette was chosen so the kneeling knight, not in his full armour, would have very earthy hues which would contrast nicely with the stark white, red and gold of the Bishop's robes. This does perhaps not come across too well due to my choice of background but it has to be said that I have been having trouble taking pictures at this time year due to the light.

Reconquista at Partizan 2020, Shield Tassels and Remodelling Spears

Just a quickie today.....

As well as getting on with the brushwork on the Mounted Hasham Guard I've been doing a little work every day on adding shield tassels made easily from Greenstuff and repositioning the hands of the Artizan models that will be making up the Sudanese Guard unit. As I've explained before the natural angle of most of hands on the Artizan Designs 'Moors'  are angles in such a way as to make it look very unnatural once the spear is placed in the hand. So, I have gently cut the hands off the models with a razor saw and then pinned them back into position at a more natural angle.

These miniatures are ready for priming. I use Vallejo black spray primer for a couple of reasons. Firstly even if it begins to pool this soon evaporates leaving all but a solid thin layer that acts as a key for further paint. Second, I have in the past experimented with using grey primer and even white but I'm so used to working with a black 'undercoat' that it is really just the habit of being able to leave a little black showing through the base layers that makes a model 'pop'.

Reconquista at Partizan 2020, Yusuf ibn Tashfin Command Base

Yusef ibn Tashfin victor against Alfonso Vi of Leon and Castile was a very remarkable man. As leader of the Moroccan Almoravid dynasty and was one of the founders of the city of Marrakesh. On heading the call of the Taifa Kingdoms, the once mighty kingdom of Al Andalus in Southern Spain; pleading for military aid and intervention in order to block the encroachment of the resurgent Christian Kingdoms. Tashfin managed to unite the Taifa Kingdoms with his Almoravid invasion force and lead a very successful campaign, putting the Christian forces under immense pressure and devastating the ambitions of Alfoso.

He faced Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile twice in open battle winning spectacular victories on both occasions at the Battle of Sagrajas 1086 and the Battle of Consuegra 1097 respectively.

This piece is the command base that will be attached to the Yusef ibn Tashfin's Black Guard. His personal guard and chosen mostly from Slav and Sudanese slaves.

The Wringing of Hands

One of the units I'm prepping the another belonging to Yufes ibn Tashfin's army. These being Sudanese spearmen using Artizan's Arfican Spearmen from the 'Moors' range. One thing I noticed with some dismay when painting up the Black Guard unit was the very annoying habit of the Artizan miniatures holding their spears angled about 45 degrees to the right side. This made it quite painful at times to base the Black Guard unit as the spears tended to be pointing at the exact space where I would have ideally liked to place the next mini! I had no such problem with the Saxon Miniatures Black Guard (now sold by Warlord) where the spears were perfectly positioned.

My solution? I have carefully cut the hands off a quarter the miniatures, allowing some to still have the angle for variation, filed the arms to get a nice soft edge then pinned the hands back on! It is a bit of a pain but the end results are worth it.

Here's a quick snap to illustrate what I mean. The figure on the left has the hand in it's original position, the three figures to the right have all had the hands removed and pinned.

Just another 12 to go. The rest of the unit being made up of Gripping Beast Nubian Spearmen in Padded Coats

Reconquista at Partizan 2020, Andalusian Noble Cavalry

Things have been a bit stressful of late with various close relatives in and out of hospital but I have managed squeeze in the time to get quite a lot of painting done! I'm not sure where I found the mental resources let alone the time but it has been managed!

I have delayed posting these pics as I had entered The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and the rules state I must wait one day before I can publish anything I have entered on my Blog- which is fair enough of course. I was drawn to the Painting Challenge as a means to keep the impetus going to get the right units painted up for the Partizan show on May 17th of this year. It's a tall undertaking but I am armed with enthusiasm, a love of painting miniatures and with the added impetus of the Painting Challenge all should be well.

A word in regarding the planned Partizan game. Nothing is written in stone yet but I feel myself moving away from what I had originally planned, that being the Battle of Sagrajas 1086, to that of the Battle of Consuegra 1097 which followed a siege of the town by the same name. This will allow for city walls to be introduced to the tabletop which will add two important factors; as well as a historical 'flash back' at the preliminaries prior to the battle, it will serve as a nice focal point and help counterbalance out the masses of miniatures with a large section that is all terrain and scenery. In fact I have the city walls on order and will be picking them up at Vapnartak on February 2nd!

Back to the subject at hand! Andalusian horses were famous throughout Europe for being of the finest quality and were often bread with other breeds in North Western Europe to produce warhorses. Whilst being strongly built, they were compact yet elegant creatures. These steeds were ridden into battle by Andalusian Nobles and lesser men alike.

I decided to move away from the dark I used on colours of the unit of Yusef ibn Tashfin's Black Guard and to go for it with a colour scheme on each mini with both complimentary and contrasting colours. Due to the limited time I have to prepare for the game I was not able to be as lavish as I would have liked, for example, no complicated patterns of the hems of the clothing, no patterns on the silks gowns. This is something that sits easily with me as the unit looks good enough in my opinion. It is not my best work but for the purposes of the game, given that one looks at a game from a metre or so away, it is detailed enough.

I went with a uniform shield colour and pattern to visually pull the unit together using neutral grey as to avoid any 'violent' colour clashes that might otherwise have occurred. 

Reconquista at Partizan 2020, Christian Baggage Base

These mini's were painted a wee while ago and re-based for use with the Reconquista game at Partizan this year in May (2020).

They are part of what will be a large collection of baggage for both the forces of Islam and Christendom.

I think it looks kind of nice. The composition works with all the models seemingly interacting with one another in some way.