Perry HYW Showcase

Although I do not doubt their historical authenticity, I mostly used these Perry figs to make "Generic Fantasy Henchmen" for small skirmishes, working on them in groups of six or so. They usually have a common theme, the first wearing red livery.

Sir Guillaume the Brave

Next up from the batch of 28mm painted figures is a dismounted knight and two servants. His device is the princely beaver, his colours are red and green.

I've really come to like the Perry HYW figures, as they easily pass as generic fantasy bods to fight orcs and other things. Lots of versatility too, especially if you combine the different boxes.

 

Undead Knight

This is a fantasy-ish Perry conversion. I took a foot knight of their English(?) HYW set, and modified it a little. I drilled out the eyeholes and made a dent on the helmet. I took a skeleton arm from a spare skeleton, he's not gonna miss it, and added a GB plastic round shield, making it look a bit battered by, again, carving and drilling through it. The upper part of the surcoat was modelled with green stuff, and the same was done to the joint of the left arm and the body. I also scraped the bottom of the surcoat with a scalpel to make it look torn.

Zvezda Foot Soldiers

Here's the next batch, seventeen or so foot figures from various boxes. They include three handgunner conversions on the left. I'm experimenting with conversions a lot - these are very versatile products, with separate arms and weapons.

Zvezda Knights

Excuse me for the weird background, this cloth does not behave the same way with sunlight as with camera flash.  Anyway, here's nine riders from the Zvezda HYW French set, very nice bods and I tried to make each of them stand out as an individual. 

Castle Building

Here's a few progress shots of the 6mm castle. It is built in a pseudo-Gothic style. On the first photo, I have laid out the walls and the keep, and started adding a few details.

Perry Foot Knights

A rather different topic than Napoleonics, this sprue of six figures was purchased quite some time ago on ebay. I've painted them up rather fast, then forgot to base them. I've used two black washes on the armor, otherwise it's the standard block-wash-highlight way. There may be a curse on me which prevents me from completing any 28mm figure within 3 months of purchase.

Two Hasslefree girls

These two were purchased during the extended Black Friday sale, thinking they could be useful for some fantasy or Dark Ages games. Hasslefree figures are very nice, especially compared to the Gripping Beast guys I was painting, which was reason enough in itself to buy them. As with most 28mm figures, it took me a lot of time to complete both.

Their basing is rather different, too. The slotted bases allow a nice flat surface, and I felt that the basing should suit the figures' attire a bit, so Henn of Gar's on the left has some baking powder fake snow, and Boudi's on the right some tea leaves for a mossy or woodland terrain effect.

GB Plastic Stuff

Eight various Vikings and Saxons, plus nine generic shooty persons, all from Gripping Beast, and acquired quite some time ago. They were speed-painted, and I think the finish is too glossy again, but they fit in style with the other thirty or so GB guys already painted.

Barbarous Hordes!

First ten of the GB Dark Age Warriors I've completed since Christmas. Not rushing things, but I finally have plans for them.

Hex Conquest!

I've been tinkering with my Ancient/Fantasy rules Battles of the Riverland for a while, and also playing with the 1990 computer game Centurio: Defender of Rome. The love child of the two is Hex Conquest, a small 11-page PDF.

I have also created five sets of printable "armies", or to be precise, one type of unit in five colors. These can be printed at a thick card, or normal thin paper, then glued on some sturdier piece - the idea is much alike that of the printable Napoleonic armies produced earlier.

Here's a Blue battle infantry unit for a teaser:

You can access both the rules and armies from the links below, and from the Rules page:

Hex Conquest rules
Hex Conquest printable armies

Trouble Trebuchet

Oh no! The Vikings have a trebuchet! (Well except it doesn't work properly, but still, imagine a fierce combination of these bloodthirsty raiders and such a destructive tool of war!)

Yellow Knight and retinue

As I have told in the previous post, my formerly stripped medieval collection is slowly reaching its numbers again. It is the well-known feeling in wargamer circles that urges one to switch to another project - the same thing happened to me.

During the days of my internship I had less hours to do something, especially that I worked on Fridays which are otherwise free days on university most of the time. So I took with me a handful of figures each week to work on, from home to the university dormitory I dwell in, plus the pots of paint and brushes. I have a quite nice travelling hobby pack now.

But on to the figures, they are all Zvezda from various sets (peasant army - HYW English knights - HYW English infantry - HYW French infantry). The centerpiece is the mounted knight, with two foot knights, a handful of men-at-arms, archers and peasant levy, As seen before on the pages of this blog, these groups are perfect for skirmish actions.

Complete Vikings

There was a WIP post of this twelve Viking raiders - now they are complete with basing. Pretty standard methods were used, and while GB plastics get some bad rep because of the badly modelled joints (where the plastic parts are glued together), they are very simple to paint. 

They are probably even better to be someone's very first figure than a handful of 1/72 plastics, if a beginner does not mind the higher price.

The Saxons and Vikings converge for a photo.

Painting diary XXXIII.

Or 33, a nice round number even in Roman, the last post with such a title is from 26 December 2014. 

The sole reason these various 28mm figures are not completed is the one mentioned earlier, the fact that I have used the remainders of my PVA and static grass supply to complete the 6mm Swedes.

There are twelve Gripping Beast plastic Vikings, three Pro Gloria (Warlord) metal Landsknechts and a Hasslefree resin lady (shown here). I have added some highlights on the latter and will hopefully photograph her with the rest of the crew. The varnish has been misbehavin' again, but nothing too serious, only a touch more glossy than anticipated.

In October, I will first and foremost resupply the grass and PVA, then start a GNW Saxon army in 1/72. If I don't want to paint 6mm figures, that's fine, I'll also have to buy a large plasticard sheet again.

I have also updated the Rules page with the incredible four-page 6mm Skirmish title, go have a look.

GB Plastic Saxons

Or Seven Thegns on the Dead Man's Chest, or Six Sexy Saxons and a Seventh Sexy Saxon, or whatever you like.

These fellows have been ignored for a long, long time. They are part of an ebay auction score of which I have painted a few figures already. Now, with painting mojo gone for a while, I thought these rather simple designs and a reasonable pace could help me out a lot, and I would be done with them soon enough.

I enjoyed painting them more than I had excpected. The shields are hand-painted too. They had a black undercoat and gunmetal drybrushed on the weapons and chainmail. I've completed the rest with some simple colors, a black shade on everything, highlights and a second shade on the faces.
Next up is a bunch of Vikings from the same range, then hopefully I'll be able to finish basing the GNW Swedes. 

The siege of Shailvascq

The Fist of Mackowskill managed to hold back the advancing Moledurssan force long enough that the Lord of Shailvascq made peace with the local Chitonet Order, offering them an alliance against the violent Blue clansmen.

The Greyhounds

Lord Moledurssan hired a group of mercenaries for his fight against the Green clansmen of Shailvascq. These men are proud of not being affiliated with any of the four clans, and wear dark grey/black clothing to emphasize that.

Lord Moledurssan and retinue

During the Methorin wars in Jackewline, an equivalent of the medieval era, the four Jackewlinese clans were effectively ruled by the eight great houses. During the wars, two rival houses, the Moledurssan of the blue clans and Maered of the greens went extinct. But at the start of the war, House Moledurssan was going strong and they launched a large (in contemporary measure) offensive against the Green castle of Shailvascq.

I am currently gaming this small campaign using Inter Arma as the rules allow a super fast setup and play. I'm always playing out a story and allow the luck factor of combat direct it more or less. 

Chitonet Qlain, the Holy Order

Painted some time ago, these are 1/72 Zvezda figures, a 300pt warband for Song of Blades and Heroes. The setup is quite uniform with six heavy infantry, a mounted commander and a female knight(?), originally Jeanne d'Arc from the Italeri HYW French set.