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! 

Battle of Shrewsbury 1096; Curved Norman Outer Wall III

Yes, the excitement is now tangible as I present to you a section of a Curved Norman Motte and Bailey Outer Wall! I know! It's so exciting!

Seriously though, I've actually had great fun painting up these resins thus far and have some village type buildings ready cleaned and undercoated ready for some action with the brush.

I'm going to start working on the terrain tiles that I have ordered from Panel Systems which I will talk about a little in a future post. To start with I am just going to go for a tile that is very plain; the theory being to build up your skills slowly. Not to jump in feet first as I have been known to do. These will make a nice surface in which to position the buildings on for photography as opposed to my workbench which is kind of, well, a work bench.....

And of course, the now ubiquitous attention to detail!

Battle of Shrewsbury 1069: Norman Outer Wall II

The tension mounts as yet another terrain piece is finished and ready to be put into the field! This time it is yet another part of what will represent the Motte and Bailey outer wall at the Battle of Shrewsbury 1069.

Again, the large part of the painting was  done with hobby paints from a craft store as they are decent enough if you give the terrain a gloss then matt varnish is stops the paint from shipping about 99% of the time. From the dark craft paint, which I described last time as like Vallejo model Colour German Black Grey, when I meant to say German Cammo Black Brown! If you're painting up resin terrain pieces for the first time (you might be; there's a first time for everything) then please don't waste your money and paint on using paints that you would use on your miniatures unless you cannot get the paint you want and you really have to. I say this with the caveat that I often finish the highlights and details with Vallejo model Colours. The browns were painted and dry brushed up using various light creams and light greys to hopefully achieve the effect of weathered wood and a grey-ish soil. I don't use white to highlight as this is too stark to add to a mix. I have put some static grass on the models and I will be adding some grass tufts but that will have to wait as I'm saving all that I now possess for the bases of the miniatures.

Yet again, I got a little carried away with adding the fine details. The crossbow, quiver and shield could easily have been dry brushed a brown with a little colour added to the shield perhaps but I think that it's the details on a wargames table that make all the difference. Or at least I am trying to convince myself that this is so!

I'm currently working on a corner piece for Shrewsburys walls and I have a few buildings that I bought and one that I scratch built a while back that a mate cast in resin for me. I still have the original which is nice!

Battle of Shrewsbury 1069; Norman Outer Wall I

EDIT: Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge folks- I've taken stock of my painted miniature collection for the suitability of said collection for Hereford and changed the game to that of the Battle of Shrewsbury 1069.

My Reconquista project has stalled a little as I await some miniatures from the USA which are taking far too long to get to me for my liking as the deadline is Partizan on May 16th! Not that I'm complaining....... OK, maybe a bit but we all want everything yesterday these days :>)

In the meantime I've been working on plan B which is the Battle of Shrewsbury 1069 as I at least have a lot of Normans and some Anglo Saxons painted up from years ago! The battle took place in front of the Norman Motte and Bailey in Shrewsbury as Edric the Wild leading an army of Anglo Danes and Welsh besieged the Norman occupants of the town.

More on the history in a separate post very soon.

I've got various pieces of terrain, which I have painted up in no logical order at all! I've had the pieces for over fifteen years and they have not seen a lick of paint in all that time. Shameful really :>)

The piece below is by Grand Manner and is one section of the Norman Motte and Bailey Outer Wall, which will serve as the town walls of Shrewsbury. Grand Manner is simply the best terrain that money can buy IMHO. No one else comes close for historical resin. Oh, Dave Bodley who runs the company apart from being very nice chap he has a real passion for his subject which shows in both the depth of research and detail.

So, without further ado, a wall section! The bases started out mainly with the hobby paint equivalent of Vallejo Model Colour German Black Grey and were highlighted up with various creams etc to replicate the look of old wood and soil etc. Greens were then added ans were the greys for the rocks as I wanted them to look cold and wet to suit the climate.

I've become a little obsessive about the details such as the shields, crossbows and quivers lying around on the battlements. Given the time I have to prepare the game this is probably a little too much but I cannot seem to help myself!

Details:

Egill Skallagrímsson

The one and only Egil Skallagrimsson.

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

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.

Blast From The Past IV

Blast from the Past IV: Did He or Didn't He?

Continuing with the series of Blast From the Past posts.....

This was a display put on by Gripping Beast at Warhammer World during the Age of Arthur Campaign Weekend. A wonderfully rich collection with many miniatures dating back to the origins of Gripping Beast all the way through to Soapy's "Arthurian" Welsh range which was new at the time.

All the images are "clickable" and the files very large so well worth digging into.