Happy New Year!

 Here's to Wishing You all a Happy New Year!

I was looking for a suitable image which would characterise 2020 and would be concurrent with the general theme of my most recent posts and all I could come up with was this!

Seriously though, thank you to everyone who has supported the blog, listened patiently to my inane mutterings! lol

Back to the Crusades; Horse Caparisons

The putty work was started on this particular miniature well over five years ago and was only recently rediscovered after trawling through a pile of stuff in my bits box! How a mini with delicate putty work ended up in my bits box is a mystery to me. Perhaps I was very hasty in my flight from my previous property? ;>) [Joke]

As soon as I caught sight of the half caparisoned horse and the Perry Miniatures First Crusade Knights sitting in the box it all cam flooding back to me! The Hospitallers, unable to take the withering arrow directed at Richard I's lines finally breaking ranks and hurling themselves at their Muslim foes at Battle of Arsuf! That is what has initially inspired to do the conversions. Then came my four or five year hiatus away from wargaming and the project, neglected was put away- not very carefully I might add!

Regular readers of my blog will know that last November I had started an 11th Century Spanish Reconquista project with a view to putting it on Zalaka/Sagrajas at Partizan that year.  The plans like so many of us had, were scuppered by the arrival of Covid. The project was shelved, which was a real shame as my "Rule of Threes" had kept all my projects running, if not quite on target then at the very least with satisfying consistency. I've made the decision to resurrect the Arsuf project as I will be able to use all the Spanish Muslim units. Also with the new Victrix Normans on the near horizon (see bottom of page for the Victrix pictures) it was high time that I pulled out the putty again and started practising again. Granted, with the Perry Horses being metal the going is more difficult; there is quite a lot of filing which needs to be done to make way for the putty, especially on the head but if I can finish a unit of twelve in time for the Victrix releases I will hopefully have garnered enough skill to keep my enthusiasm on par.

The caparison is a little rough and ready but I am not going to let that put me off. Already the lessons passed on to me by John Morris of Mystic Spirals fame vie the Lead Adventure Forum have been reabsorbed. I have finished the modelling for the shoulder, back, loin and docks of the horse and now have to tackle the rather more fiddly head. I think I have achieved a reasonably smooth surface which is half the battle. I've made a couple of rudimentary mistakes, for example, the horses tail should technically be covered by the caparison but overall, I'm happy with my first serious attempts in five years.

Here are the pictures of the Victrix plastics that will be on their way sometime early next year. They do look spectacular. I am looking forward to filing away at the plastic as opposed to the high grade metal the Perry's use.

Merry X-mas Everyone and a Big Shout Out to The Army Painter!

 OK, not exactly Santa but he is wearing red and he does have a grey beard!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas 

Hope Santa packed your stockings! That just sounds wrong! I must stop listening to the Too Fat Lardies podcasts.... they are becoming a bad influence. But perhaps that is the point lol

Also, a big shout out to The Army Painter who without after receiving an email from me about two defective cans of spray paint; without hesitation sent me an invoice for £0.00 and are sending me the replacement cans. Bravo to The Army Painter!

Next Anglo Danish Unit (Mixture) Further Ranks

Another set of eight Anglo Danish Huscarls and Fyrd complete for the fourth unit. Three more units to and 12 bases of skirmishers to go but they will be on hold for a while as I am going to be digging back into my Early Byzantines. It has been roughly eight days since they received a coat of gloss varnish and a couple since the first matt varnish layer was added. As is so easily done when spraying a matt varnish over that of a gloss it is easy to miss bits (which of course I did!) so had to wait another day to apply another coat. After a week of waiting to get them finished an extra day is a trifle really.

There is a good mix of miniatures ranging from (very) OOP Gripping Beast Patten brothers), more contemporary Gripping Beast Colin Patten and Soapy), Footsore Miniatures (Bill), Saxon Miniatures (Colin Patten) and finally Drabant. If any of the miniatures prior to painting seem like they are just not going to fit it was the Drabant miniatures. They have much larger proportions then the rest. I think the painting process provides some sort of homogeneity which binds the miniatures into a whole creating e believable unit.

If you scroll to the bottom of the page you will see a couple of images that show how the miniatures fit together on the 40mm x 40mm bases. I chose to go with the smaller size bases as opposed to my normal 40mm frontage and 50-60mm depth as I was looking to create that hunched together in a Shieldwall look. not unlike some of the sections of the Bayeux Tapestry. 

Anglo Danish Command Figures:

Huscarl and Fyrdman:

Huscarl and Fyrdman:

Fryd:

Mock Up of Unit:

I used to use superglue for this job but have been a grateful convert to being more patient and using PVA so I can better adjust any miniatures which look out of kilter with the rest of the unit.