Another three stands of Orc soldiers

 It’s been rather quite over the last couple of weeks but I finally got around to finishing these guys. Nice and quick paint jobs over some great character figures.

 My friend bought me a copy of Oathmark for my birthday and I was very impressed with it. It has a nice Dark Ages vide which ties very well into Middle Earth. Stats for actual races as well rather than generic profiles, which was the only downside to Dragon Rampant.

Anyway we are both quite excited by the rules and I have already been working out what to class the bases I have already. The orcs above will be spearmen as with their long pole arms they stand out from the earlier bases I painted using mostly old metals.

My bases of six models doesn’t quite match up to the rules but nothing a little tweaking can’t fix.

Researching a new era

 The problem with learning about a new historical era is that you start to see it everywhere you look. You can’t really mention it to anyone either or they will think you crazy.... anyway was playing outside and saw this. Hope you understand :).

More thoughts on War of the Roses basing.

 Well more thought and more ideas. I have always been a fan of multi basing and these larger ‘impetus’ style bases do have a lot to offer.
On rereading the Peter Pig web site, they do say these large bases are fine for Bloody Barons. Also with 12 figures on a base, Lion Rampant is doable. A dice to mark down casualties in both games.

 The main pull for a large base like this would be the ‘story’ you could tell with wounded and dead figures and the ground, also the effect of snow and arrows covering the ground. I still to this day haven’t found an excuse to use snow effects on a base, after chickening out on my Hobbit armies. Of course snow could mean only one battle, Towton, but that’s my chosen conflict in the war so all is fine. It would be nice to do some muddy bases with snow over the top.

 Impetus examples, clearly showing that you do not actually need all twelve figures on a base.

I plan to add about three or four men at arms in full harness at the front of the bill bases.

Now I have scratched this little hobby itch I can put it away for a future project and crack on with my ECW forces. I think I will buy the odd box and quietly gather a small army in the background and try not to pressure myself about painting any figures.

War of the Roses

 I’m playing around with the best base size to game War of the Roses. After lots of rule research, I have settled on the very flexible three to a base. It seems to lend itself to many different rules sets. Bloody Barons, Lion Rampant and Kings of War Historical being the favourites at the moment.

 40mm looks the best with the packed ranks, but I thought I would just push it to 50mm for some more wriggle room. Also 50mm would also stack up nicely into Kings of War regiments... early days yet... early days.

The Army of Parliament WIP

 Based up and ready for action, Redmond’s Regiment of Foote joins the Army of Parliament upstairs. It’s nice to see all of he regiments together and compare to two red coated units. The artillery is still being worked on, so that will be added shortly.

There is also one more squadron of horse down stairs that will bring the total up to seven. Almost done, although I have already picked and sorted another regiment of Foote, Geal’s, to add to the army. This I plan to be a grey coated regiment, as they were quite common in the Roundhead armies. Giving to the phrase ‘Parliament grey’. So Geal’s Regiment of Foote will be a grey coated one with black colours.

 I am using the army lists in the 1644 ECW rule book as a rough rule of thumb to create a force. It’s lists goes up to five Foote regiments Per side and so I thought that would be a good number to aim for.

I won’t be playing this rule set but the army lists are a handy guide to creating a force.

Below is a rough sketch of the units so far, Royalist dragoons have seized the bridge and neighbouring mill.

Zombie Wars

Who would have thought the Mars zombies would unit with the Cybermen to attack Moon base one...

1st Corps ECW Artillery men

Just thought I’d do a quick post about these guys because I think they’re great. The line up above shows just how well they compare to Bicorne and Renegade figures. At £5 for four figures isn’t bad at all and I’ve been impressed with the quality of the sculpts too.

As the purse strings get tightened, these are definitely my figures of choice for the future. Highly recommended!

Parliament battery in Hockliffe, bearing down on Wattling Street.

A couple of years ago my wife and I found an old over grown Lane with a church at the end of it. There were a few some small holdings and a manor house right at the very top of the lane on a slight hill. This place had so much history to it that we decided to research it. Sure enough it turned out to be a place of historical interest. In the Civil war, the manor had been occupied by Parliament troops and a gun battery had be put there on the hill looking down onto wattling street (A5). This emplacement would dominate the busy trade route and have a very commanding view over the area.

Trick shots

 I took ‘old knob’ outside for a bit of fresh air, I think he quite enjoyed it!.

 It’s amazing what a bit of natural light can do for a diorama base.

 This is a shot I took with a model train background, works quite well, must work of the ground next time.

Unit update

 Sir Spencer Redmonds Regiment of Foote is completed and forms up.

 Another small group of orcs are finished off. There is two bases of orc scouts but these still need the rocks painted with granite grey,

 Two squadrons of Royalist horse. These are based on the larger 80x 80mm base, so the horse can be spread out more giving the effect of a charge.

 Those guns again... how many times do we need to see these?!

 Righteous hard heads, parliamentarian horse shuffle into place knee to knee.

 The battery gives fire on the manor house, killing the cook.

 The little helper wanted to know why I was taking so long and not paying her any attention.

 Another good thing about the Vallejo mud product is you can push casualties into it while it is still wet. Logs, guns and of course canon balls were also added.

A Royalist blew coat lays dead in the mud, killed from a pistol ball.