Mongol War Machines

This post is my recently completed heavy fire power for my fantastical Mongol collection.

The crew are a combination of bits. Heads from FireForge Mongol plastics with Bodies from Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors. Just something I thought I would try to see how it would look. As crew they look fine in my opinion. In 'Kings of War' crew are purely decorative and have no game/rule function. The long pole they have are intended as the winding device but perhaps I could place an arrow head on them for the next reload.

The large iron bolt throwing machines are actually from the Goblin range by Mantic. They have a perfect space for a Mongol shield rather than a Goblin shield or symbol on the front. They are both mounted on 50mm square bases. These are a great model and are metal and it's been a long while since I constructed something metal and of this size. A little cleaning up and a little filing and they go together reasonably well. 

Cheers from Brendon

Arabs and a Norman

Some experimentation has been taking place on my Hobby table. These Arabs below have bodies from three different plastic sets. Gripping Beast Arabs, Griping Beast Dark Ages infantry (middle) and a FireForge box (scale armour). It was just an idea for more variety and just to see what it would look like. Not that they need variety as they dont have uniform colours.
Seems to work good to my eye. The scale armour and Arab combo looks suitable for Frostgrave or a Fantasy setting which is good as that is sort of how I intend to use them.
I have recently had another look at the 'Kings of War' rules and made some Army lists. Both my Arab and Mongol collection have been re imagined to 'count as' Elves. I will expand on that in a later post.
The shields are all hand painted designs.

Below is a plastic Conquest Games Norman on a pale gray horse with colours inspired by all that Read and Black I have been painting on the Beer and Bacon army. A few weeks ago when I quickly searched for a shield (with arm) I could not locate any of the larger ones that came in the box. The larger ones don't have a shield boss and they are only slightly bigger. I only have two more to complete in my unpainted collection and I should have them painted by next weeks painting challenge deadline.

Cheers from Brendon

Arab infantry at the double

By at the double I mean more 'double ups' with two to each 25mm base. Gripping Beast plastic Arabs. All with hand painted shields. I am very pleased with the shields. These are for two different unit types. Spear armed unit and a Sword armed unit. One base has a sword and spear (unit leader waving the sword). His arms are actually from the Arab Heavy Cavalry set with shoulder armour. The body came with the shield arm so that had to be cut away to create this option. The curved sword arm is also from that set. The red Arab with the low sword is an arm from the Dark Ages infantry box also from Gripping Beast.
I challenged myself to try going much brighter in colours for the four figures on your right with swords. For the first time in a very long time I actually reached for pure white paint. A tricky colour to work with. In my mind I see a sword armed unit as perhaps a bit more regal than the rest so having some brighter colours may help them stand out a little against the spear armed infantry but only a little as this army is very colourful which is really it's uniform so to speak.


 

Cheers from Brendon

Red and Black variety of troops

A mixed bag of Perry Plastics to bolster the ranks of my Red and Black army. 

12 foot sloggers and 1 Knight on a horse. The Knight is an officer type no doubt with his gold detail on the horse armour. The two infantry with wind instruments have parts from other kits. The halberd men have had some customisation as well.

 

Not much to say really but I am happy to have worked my way through a lot of double ups for this force recently. I actually assembled most of them before project Goblin Army last year so it's been a long while in the making. It's great to see the initial vision painted now. I won't be posting much new painted from this force in the future as I only have a very few infantry left unpainted.

Cheers from Brendon

Arab Archers, Dark Age Archers and 3 others

This week is a variety of 28mm plastics with one having a rest.

Mounted on a 25x50mm base makes for a great filler on a Cavalry unit. Perhaps he fell off his horse?
I didn't paint any blood or indication of a reason for his little lie down. Maybe he got knocked unconscious or perhaps he has crippling belly ache. Too much food in foreign lands.

Next is 3 double ups and a single. Plastic Arabs from Gripping beast. Sword waving dudes are traditional unit officers. The Shields are hand painted designs. I had a great time painting them and painting shields becomes a project within itself. I felt I had finally found my groove again. It's taken a while to get my eye back in but finding some painting Mojo is great. Variety really helps.

Below is another bossy looking boss for a Red and Black unit. His companion on his base was painted a while back but was torn asunder from his previously completed base. Re-basing is a pain but I am determined to create more double ups. This one is destined for a Pike unit and as I already have Flag waving dudes he will not be getting one though he looks like he should.

More plastic Dark Age Archers from Gripping Beast.
One of these was a carry over from my previous weeks painting who needed a base buddy.
Devoid of armour and not having a uniform colour these take more painting than higher value troops.
Helmets can make painting heads easier. Chain mail means less choices for colours.

 


Below I thought I would show you why I double base. This universal unit tray is for a 'Troop' infantry size in 'Kings of War'. That originates from 10 in 2 ranks of 5 on 20mm square bases. As you can see 4 on a tray looks great for a skirmish unit but the double bases thicken the unit.

Cheers from Brendon

Dogs of War

I purchased this a long while back and I think from memory they are from Crusader Miniatures but correct me if I am wrong.

I purchased these as a unit for my Viking army for Kings of War Historical. The concept being...I plan to make some Cavalry for an Anglo-Saxon army. The main enemy for them is Vikings who arrive via longship and lack cavalry usually. To offset Cavalry they employ/bully these dog teams to help them out. In the rules these units have a minor bonus if they go toe to toe with Cavalry.

In Kings of War these are a Regiment and two Troop sized units.

Alternatively two Regiments if the Troop units are together.

I almost considered abandoning the handlers for plastic dudes to better match my existing collection. But I persevered with them as perhaps these unique units should have unique barefooted handlers.
I don't need the handlers to pop so nice subdued Dark Age colors for them as usual for Dark Ages. 

The strangely bottom rounded cloak gave an opportunity to try some freehand tartan for one of them.
It was good to get these finally done as they had been primed a long time back before last years project Goblin army.

Cheers from Brendon

Red and the Black Infantry and Cavalry

These Perry Miniatures plastics are finely detailed so it was a hard re-introduction to painting after many months of no activity with a brush. I built these before the last painting challenge but it seems the Goblin army project took over. Overall despite it feeling like a long time to get them completed I am satisfied with them. Among the double ups below are some options that do not come straight off the sprue. Getting different weapons glued onto cut down Pikes I found to be frustrating but worth it in the end. Some hands have been cut off and replaced and some cases I had to rebuild or gap fill wrists. Probably why I put them to one side for so long.

These Pikemen will help bulk up the figure count on my universal Kings of War unit bases. Doubling them up 25mm round bases requires painting one of them before adding them to the base. It's a bit more work compared to single basing with the base material all completed before painting (apart from the flock of course). For Kings of War I aim to have options for regular Pike and  Heavy Pike. The one musician was painted and based a long time back but I hacked him off the base to rebase him in the double up way. I seem to have a few more that this will happen to in the future.

Four light lancers with 2 on 50x50mm bases to help with base filling a unit tray. Some standard brown horses for these. Nothing fancy.

More double ups for Billmen/Halberds and Black Powder shooters.

I have a few more in the production pipeline.

The photos don't really capture them but you get the general idea. For some reason the Helmets have a reddish reflection on them. It's not some sort of cool burnish wash on them at all.

Cheers from Brendon and may your Bacon be salty and your Beer dark.

Varangur War Machines

2 x Varangur War Machines. These 50x50mm bases are the Varangur version of a big Dwarf Gun or a a Trebuchet etc. That is...if they could shoot lightning bolts instead! Three evil demon worshiping wizards or shamen combine wizardry powers to blast the opposition with a brutal spell all the while not having to push a heavy war engine around. They do have to drag around the big staffs though.

The bodies of these miniatures are Gripping Beast plastic Arab infantry with some arms from other boxes including some from FireForge Mongols, heads and staff toppers from Games Workshop. 

These are painted to match the overall tone of metal and black for the rest of the army. The Photos I have taken on my iphone don't quite capture the shading on them. Looking at them now I think I could see my way to doing some more minor painting on them. A little more khaki dust and perhaps making the metal skulls a brass colour. 

Cheers from Brendon

Three Cyclop giants. Monster March.

These three lads are from Puppets War, made of resin and, they have a ton of character. Well done to the sculptor for these excellent designs.

I have had them in my collection for some time. Mainly because two needed some filling at arm joins and I put that sort of work off. Not something I am a big fan of. It's just a part of the hobby that does not appeal but the effort is worth it...when I get around to it.

I attempted three different shades of skin tones with two ending up very similar. They are based on 50mm squares for use in my Kings of War Goblin army. These big idiots are around 75mm tall with the possible Rock Thrower war machine substitute being around 90mm tall including his nicely decorated Dwarven stone. I gloss varnished the Eyes and the mouths and really like the result of that.

I am never sure when it comes to adding blood to add more or less. Not really a fan of too much blood on miniatures but with a grisly stump it was required and the reason for the missing head was snack time no doubt. I just picked the nearest head as the likely consumer.
The eyeballs could have been painted to look down more but, I was happy with how they looked. They look at you the viewer rather than infantry below them. These are not as tall as the plastic GW Giant but I was very happy to discover three distinctly different looking Giants that fit tidily on 50mm square bases. Perfect for my desire of three Giants in my Goblin army for Kings of War. They are my last Submission for The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge but also fit the Monstrous March challenge.

I rushed to get these photos done as I was short on time recently due to my City coming under attack from Cyclone Marcus. A big clean required afterward and I have a few images of that on my instagram profile.... the_brendonius. Lots of destroyed trees mainly. That's life in the Cyclone prone Tropics.

Cheers from Brendon