Prince Rupert, England's Wolfe With Eagle Claws

Puritan propaganda at its finest. A bloody handed Cavalier is portrayed as a wolf with Eagles claws. Firing up the Parliamentarian war machine against the unholy murdering royalist monsters.

"The cruell impieties of blood-thirsty royalists and blasphemous anti-parliamentarians under the command of that inhumane Prince Rupert, Digby and the rest, wherein the barbarous crueltie of our civill uncivill warres is briefy discovered"

Fake Wood cut

The regiment passes hands to the new commander.

I thought it would be nice to illustrate this moment and to make it look 16th century by faking a wood cut look. I found it really fun to do and quite refreshing. I will do more!

Parliamentarian troops

Here is a shot of Parliamentarian troops marching off the field at Newstead Abbey this year. It was a very wet day that Sunday but It was my first taste of battle and I loved it. I was fighting against these guys and will add some more pictures soon.

Picture: Zoe Herbert-Jackson

Confederate Horseman

Painting 28mm Union Troops

 Here is another bad photo of my work bench, as you can see the Romans have pulled out to make room for Billy yank. After reading the 'Regimantal' Fire and Fury rules the other month, I was filled with ideas and painting passion once more.
It wasn't long before I was pulling out old draws full of ACW and selecting figures for the brush. Some of them have waited over twenty years for it. Just as well because they would cost me a fortune now with Foundry's prices. Always horde I say!

After tearing my hair out trying to work out a good base size last year for my ACW, I was surprised to see that Regimental F+F uses bases with three to a base, the same as my current ACW armies. This was a great surprise and one I had not enjoyed before. The problem was when I got back into painting figures in 1998, I had no internet, nor did I really know any other War gamers. I didn't even buy the magazines. I just painted away in ignorant bliss (I miss those days). I made up my own basing and painting methods to reach my own standards and was happy.
Things are a lot different now with my use of the Internet with all of it's amazing blogs and ideas etc. My old 1998 dusty collection isn't up to my current standards, I mean there not even shaded! Another big thing for me is when I collected them way back when, I would stick all the same poses on to a base. Now I have had years of looking and learning from others, I want to break up these Clone armies and Regiments and add a little variety. Men advancing in line shouldn't look all the same and I have seen some lovely work on other peoples web sites.

 
So the idea is that these 50 odd multiple poses will be integrated with my existing one pose Regiments to give them more character. It also gives me an opportunity to improve the standard of the painting and basing of the old units.

I didn't mess around with these guys, I just jumped straight in and went for it. I had bought the Foundry ACW paint set months before and now just used the colours to bash out the numbers. I think I have ended up with over 50 figures after continually adding to the pile. To speed things up I just painted one colour for the trousers, either Union trouser A, B or C for variety. Then I gave them a wash of (GW) brown Ink...done, move on to the next one. I did spend a little more time on the blue, only because I wanted to try out the Foundry colours.The highlight was maybe a little light for me but they look good.

They were all undercoated black first and I trained myself to leave some of the black when painting over with the colours. This is a basic technique but one I have never used before. For example, I painted around the belts and equipment leaving them the undercoat colour. This did speed things up and stopped me getting too caught up in lenghy detail.

I also took the chance to try out the Foundry flesh tone A, then highlight with Flesh B. I normally just use Flesh B, then wash with delvan wash (GW). I like the results of using the Flesh shade A and found it just as quick as using ink.

XIV Legion finally arrived

 Here are some pictures of my poor old forgotten Legion, who have been lost on route to their barracks.

 They set out back in Nov last year but have only just arrived back at their summer camp. Where they have been and quite how they have been forgotten for so long, only the Gods know. Anyway they're back and finished that's the main thing.

 I let my self have real fun with this lot and with great effort I took off my perfectionist head and just enjoyed painting basic colours then dipping with AP. They turned out great and I only highlighted a few because they didn't really need much. I think the joy came at seeing how quick they were produced and the results on the armour was good. The shields took a bit more time as they are hand painted and are based on the re-enactment group of the XIV legion.

These figures now complete the Army of Britannia and make three cohorts of 18 Legionaries. Lately I changed my Cohorts from 24 to 18 figures because they looked better and were more manageable on the board. Also I liked the idea of having more units to play with and the formations they can now take.

Painting Again

I'm back! After working like a mad man for several months I have finally got enough time to myself to sit and paint again.

 I have finally flocked my poor old Romans who have sat on the table for months and have just finished a load of Union troops. In my time away I started to read the Fire and Fury Regimental rules and was quite taken with them. Well, it got me painting figures again so they must have had an impact. Anyway more on that later, it's just good to be back painting where I belong. JOY!

Although I have been working like a loon I did find some time to do some more re-enacting and had a great day at Naseby. I died... but it was worth it.

Picture: Zoe herbert-Jackson

Prince Rupert's Blew Coats

Here two Royalist Blew coats discuss their chances in the on going war.

Prince Rupert's Pikemen

Ted's day started off on the wrong foot.

WAB is No More.

Tired and exhausted, the old champion of the ancients finally loses his way and falls to the blades of younger men. The crowd groans with disbelief but everybody knows the old champ has been off his game for years. His demise comes as no real surprise to the old veterans of the games.

 WAB is dead...Let the games begin.

Blew Coats on Campaign

The Last Stand of the Blew coats

Prince Rupert's Blew Regiment of Foot make their doomed last stand on the field of Nasby 1645.

Adventure party

 An old school adventure party delve deeper into an ancient ruin in search of treasure, much to the dislike of the claustrophobic Elf. The Dwarf curses under his breath, "who's idea was it to bring an Elf on such a venture? Not mine!"

Longfoot Curly Toes just wants to go home too, but his loyalty to the others always gets the better of him.

Dwarves!

Here are some of those fine old models my friend gave me all those years ago. I thought they were too good to leave unpainted. I really enjoyed painting these and although they are old, they still have loads of character. I prefer these old sculpts to many of the new models of today, these old 1980'S sculpts are more realistic in appearance, before weapons and armour started to grow out of all proportions.

I have based these six Dwarfs on a 60mmx40mm base and have been influenced by reading 'Hordes Of The Things' rule set.

I have also been won over by Tim's blog site http://saskminigamer.blogspot.co.uk/p/basing.html. Infact it was this website that really got me thinking about Fantasy again...thanks Tim. For me an army has to look like an army and Tim's approach of doubling the numbers of figures recommended really appealed to me. HotT recommends bases of three figures very similar to DBA, but an army of thirty figures was never going to sit well with me. Tim's idea of doubling these figure amounts and base depth won me over after looking through his amazing blog. Now an army can look like an army with 60 + figures.

Also In 'HotT' I like the way that each base or 'Element' can become a little diorama in its own right. I have read mixed reviews about this game but for me the main thing is the painting and I can always bend rules to match my basing at the end of the day.

 These bases could even fit the LOTR rules with a pinch, with each base being counted as a company.The imagination behind HotT as really got my brain juices flowing and I love the idea of coming up with your own troop types and stands to fit with the army type. On such idea is a 'sneaker' base for the Dwarf army being a Dwarven adventure party. I loved this idea and so have started to put one together complete with Hobbit.

It's early days yet but I have really enjoyed my little foray into Fantasy again and plan to paint some more when I have time.

The Great eBay Gamble

Wood Elf and Dark Elf

Just thought I'd mock up a quick Elfy drawing and try out some colours. I haven't time to paint at the moment but my head is still buzzing with ideas. Anyway here they are, the light and the dark.

Off to Salute tomorrow and looking forward to meeting fellow Bloggers. It's a long journey to get there but it should be worth it. See you all soon.

Dark Elf

A Dark elf swordsman taken from designs by the Perry Twins back in 1984.

Bed and Breakfast in Isenguard!

This has to be my favourite part in the LOTR, where the two different factions of Orcs argue over which way to take the Hobbits. Trying out a new pen today and the scene was the first thing that came to my mind.

Fantasy Rules?

I've really enjoyed myself painting up those old Citadel miniatures and It's got me thinking about painting up a few more.
I have been rather struck by Tim's miniature war gaming blog and the way he has based his figures for HotT (Hordes of the Things).
http://saskminigamer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/hordes-of-things-game-1.html
I've never really been a huge fan of DBA, coming from the Warhammer school of throwing masses of dice.
Is HotT any good and does anybody know of any other good rules out there. I have to admit I haven't really looked at any Fantasy rules for years.

I'm getting kind of hooked on the idea of painting up my ancient dark Elf figures and basing them on a 60x40 bases. These 60 x 40 bases would be companies. I like the look of HotT but not so keen on all the different sized bases, I would probably take a leaf out of Tim's book and mount all my figures on the same size base.
The rules I could tweak.
A friend of mine is a big fan of the GW Lotr rule set but I think I would rather collect the actual Lotr figures for that If I went down that route.

Dain II VS Azog

A young Dain ironfoot kills the mighty orc chieftain Azog.

Azog's son, Bolg would later lead a mighty goblin host to the Battle of the five armies to claim Smaug's treasure. He would not return. The size of Azog and latter his son, Bolg, points to them being large Uruks from Mordor.

Charles II

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The English Civil War

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Fantasy Island

Two years ago a good friend of mine gave me his box of old Citadel and Grenadier miniatures.

I dug it out last night and had a good look at what was inside. Most of the figures were produced in 1987.

This Goblin figure is a very early sculpt indeed, early Eighties I would say.

I have always loved Dwarves, because of their characterful faces and equipment. I would love to paint these guys up and find more (in my loft) to make a forty man warband. The only thing is I hate the slotta bases and would cut them off and mount the figure on a flat base with four other Dwarves. I would like to put the unit together as if it were a historical unit with four figures on 40mmx40mm bases.

However, the collector in me screams at the idea of cutting up such old and valued mini's.

GW Gimli (1985)

Grenadier 1989 troll.

I love this fighter from Grenadier (1987)

A heavily armoured Halfling fighter, a true heroe of his Shire.

Norse Dwarf (1987)

Blade of Mordor

Make it Ocky with this attractive Mordor Goblin knife. Be the envy of you friends with this one time deal of a life time. Watch them laugh as you tickle maggot holes in them with this priceless relict of a forgotten Third age!

Poison sound separately.

I found this great looking Orc blade the other day in a mates garage and thought I'd better take a picture for reference.

I haven't painted any fantasy figures for over twenty years, but the the new plastic Orcs from Wargames Factory have tempted me.

The reason being they remind me of the old Angus McBride illustrations for MERP back in the Eighties.

Anyway I quite fancy painting some Orcs and as I'm listening to LOTR at the mo, I'm fully juiced up and raring to go.