Messing Around with 11th CE Early Medieval Miniatures Again.....

 Just a few pics of the game we had on the table last Thursday before all the carnage started!

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.... :>)

Gestir for Warhammer Ancient Battles

 

It was one of those moments, treasured if you like, when you come across an old picture whilst looking for something completely different. Gestir for Warhammer Ancient Battles. These must have been painted nigh on twenty years ago! They are all Colin Patten sculpts from Milliput(!) from very old moulds which managed to I pester Darren into getting Stuart to cast up for me. 

These warriors were as the name suggests these were "guest warriors" in another lords hall. Down on their luck but willing to fight in exchange for the patronage of a new lord. They were more then a useful unit to have on the table in WAB as they could be armed with two hand weapons and were Light Infantry; quite a powerful combination in WAB as they could manoeuvre well over difficult terrain and were a handful in melee.

To quote the section from the Warhammer ancient Battles, Shieldwall Supplement in the Dogs of War section:

"It was common for impoverished lordless warriors to visit the halls of the Jarls and Kings (Kunnungr) of Scandinavia where they would be maintained as a sign of the lord's wealth and hospitality. Such warriors would have accompanied their host when he went on campaign, and they would keenly fight to show their respect for their lord's hospitality. Unfortunately, they would sometimes find themselves in the predicament of fighting against the warriors of a former host. The most famous of such "guest warriors" were the Icelandic adventurers who flocked to the courts of the Norwegian Kings in the 10th and 11th Centuries."

A real blast from the past! 

Egill Skallagrímsson

The one and only Egil Skallagrimsson.

Painted many years ago when it was first released by Gripping Beast.

Interesting Interpretation of Gate Fulford 1066 with Visual Aid on Youtube

Here it is......

I wasn't aware that Harald Hardrada had any troops hidden(?), I'm going to out on a limb that this was a deliberate group of elite warriors held in reserve given he had a lot of military experience from Scandinavia, Spain and Byzantium?

At Last! A new Post!!

Hi all,

I was contemplating whether to just say that I've been away from the hobby for four months due to personal reasons (which is certainly true!). Read on if you want to hear the 'blues jam'- if not just scroll down to the pics below;

Basically I've been away from wargaming and painting for about four months due to a relationship breakdown with the love of my life. I was with her for fourteen years when one day she asked me to leave, which is what I did. This was obviously devastating news as although we weren't married the relationship, which was very loving, was the basis of my life and it has taken me four months to come to terms with it being over! I doubt that I'll ever be really 'over it' but at least i now feel strong enough to start blogging, painting and being creative again. I guess that the fact that we had not had any children in this case is a blessing as they would have almost certainly have suffered psychological trauma through the breakdown of what was once a very strong relationship. My partner was always supportive of the hobby and was often to be seen at shows with me around the country. I don't bear her any animosity and in fact I am very thankful for our time together.

So, I hear you say, what have you in the pipeline?

Currently I'm working, or rather about to embark upon a couple of projects. The first being two demo games that will be at Salute in 2016 and Vapnartak in the same year; the games being The Battle of Hastings and Battle of Fulford Gate.

The second project is going to be another demo game, possibly at Partizan next year that will feature the Second Afghan War and Mike Owen's brilliant range of North West Frontier mini's combined with Studio Miniatures North West Frontier range and of course, it would be almost sacrilegious not to include some of the Perry Miniatures sculpts that they did for Wargames Foundry back in the day as well as some of their suitable Indian Mutiny/Indian Rebellion of 1857 mini's.

That's all for now really except to say that bearing my obsession with Late 14th Century Warfare I have of course asked Santa to "please bring me three boxes of the new Perry Miniatures HYW English!

Pics below, I'm sure that you've all seen them before but what would a post on a wargaming blog be without any pics, eh?

Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience for my lack of posts.

Darrell.

9thC Norse/Vikings

I really thoroughly enjoyed painting these up. All the shields and banners are hand painted.

Some of the castings would be almost impossible to get hold of nowadays especially in the second unit as they were the first Gripping Beast 'Vikings' to be produced and were sculpted in Milliput! I don't think they really show their age as they have bags of character.

Cheers,

Darrell.