Six Red and Black Light Cavalry

New recruits for the nation that values Beer and Bacon above all that glitters. Light Cavalry from Perry Miniatures to defend the kingdoms high carb virtues.

These detailed figures take me longer than most at the same scale to complete but I was lucky enough to find some more time available to me the past week. Time seems to be in short supply for this hobby for me at the moment. But that's the way it rolls sometimes. 

Hope it's all been good in your part of the world. Here we saw a cyclone form nearby but only got to Category 1 and passed us by. Cyclone Blanche which had people humming the 'Golden Girls' theme. Those old enough to remember anyway.

Anyway cheers from here and I hope my dodgy photos look OK on whatever device you are viewing them on.

Mounted Mongols and Knights

Mounted mayhem in this post with 4 Perry Miniatures Knights and 5 FireForge Mongols. All plastic and all 28mm. These earned me 90 points in the Painting Challenge.

The Mongols feature 4 armoured torsos from Gripping Beast Arab Cavalry. The Mongol on the square base will have a rider swap for a Bow shooting dude. It's an idea for skirmish units to make them have less figures per unit. I will eventually show what that looks like at some stage.

The Knights have two leader types with extra gold to make them stand out in a unit. I plan to do a few more of these types as my Knights have increased considerably. 

Cheers and enjoy your painting from Brendon.

Wars of the Roses Perry Miniatures Cannon

I painted these early in the Painting Challenge. 3 Plastic (pike and spears) and 4 metal crew and a metal cannon. More options for my Red and Black army. Cannon is on a 50mm square base. I decided to place no crew on large base so I could consider using different crew from another army.

 Cheers from Brendon.

Perry Light Horse Wars of the Roses

These photos of Perry Lighthorse for my Beer and Bacon Kingdom collection have been taken on different days for submission deadlines for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Included down below are the two Skewbald patterns  as seen in the small illustrated how I painted post.
I have completed two boxes. 24 miniatures all up and I am very happy about that.
For the list builder part of me these additions open up so many options for...Kings of War...Lion Rampant...Dragon Rampant....

So far this year has been my own Year of the Horse for painting. Perhaps I should get some more.

Two of the plastic foot pikemen with lowered pikes are conversions. Not as easy to do as many other weapon and arm swaps I have done in the past and would have been easier if I had just acquired another box with the Billmen as many arms are suitable in that set for this purpose but I had used them all previously before I had this crazy idea.

Cheers from Brendon

More painted Gripping Beast Arabs

Another post from submissions for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Completed on different weeks so photographed at different times.
All shields are hand painted inspired by the LBM decals on some of the previous ones posted.
The arm and standard pole are from FireForge Mongols plastics. The flag design detail was from an Internet search so thanks to the amazing calligraphy of whoever did that piece. Next to him is actually a Dark Age bowmen. I have included a close up of some Horse blanket patterns. This has been a very enjoyable project to work on and as at writing this I only have one Plastic Arab Cavalry miniature to complete from 3 boxes! That certainly feels like progress to me.
If you are thinking about making these take your time in getting riders to 'sit' nicely on the horses. some legs seem to sit easier on the different horses while some required the attention of Mr Scalpel to both the horse and the rider. I found it particularly useful to trim back the front saddle bump to allow the legs to position slightly more forward.

The red foot figure has had a major surgery. The infantry are single piece bodies and as an experiment I chopped the torso off replacing it with an armoured one from the Heavy Cavalry set.
Makes for an interesting looking miniature and perhaps upgrades him to some sort of heavy infantry.

Cheers from Brendon

Mighty mounted Mongols

Next in my painted recently catch up posts are FireForge plastic Mongols (28mm).
Photographed (with an iPhone) in groups for weekly submissions to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. So yeah.... a bit of colour difference and so on.
I thought I would bunch them together here. Some of them have Torsos and arms from the Gripping Beast Arab Heavy Cavalry set.

You may have noticed that I have created a certain uniformity of duller colours. This was intentional from the start. I wanted a scheme of more or less natural looking dyes. Though Mongols acquired silk as an important part of armour it was possibly worn under garments. It is easy to keep this dull scheme by using all those WWII colours that have been acquired over time.
Life as a Mongol soldier no doubt was one of being constantly on the move and that came naturally to them from a nomadic lifestyle at birth. Living among herds of animals moved from here and there is no doubt dirty and dusty work.

Fun information....
- Mongols warriors trained for stamina. Horses bred for endurance...not speed over short distance.
- Children tied to sheep before they could walk to get used to being in the saddle.
- Animal fat is wind burn skin protection.
- Mongols had many different arrows including whistling arrows and wounding arrows.
- Each mounted Mongol was expected to have at least 5 horses each.

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)

Dark age Dudes

More painted progress completed in between all those horses completed recently.
These are all Plastic 28mm and from a few different makers. The shirtless berserkers are from Warlord Games Celts and the companions are Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors. The Archer has parts from a Conquest Games archer set.

Next are Conquest Games Normans with parts from the Medieval Archer set. Sme are entirely from the Archer box while others are from the Norman Infantry set. Some of the quivers are from the Gripping Beast Arab sets.
Painting these reminded me how much I like my Norman Cavalry from Conquest Games and as I have made so much progress I decided to get another box of them. Especially now that I have had a lot more practice at painting horses. Might be a while before they are built let alone painted though. I was thinking they might make for an interesting 'Brotherhood' army in the Kings of War system. I will expand that idea in a future post.

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)

Lots more Gripping Beast Arabs painted

More 28mm plastic Gripping Beast Arabs. Many of the shields are LBM decals but some are handpainted. Theses are from several weeks work. Photographed at different times all with an iPhone. Parts have been mixed from all three of the Arab plastic sets (Foot, heavy Cavalry and Light Cavalry). I have even tried the Viking/Saxon arms on at least one rider below. (see if you can find him).I have really enjoyed painting this force.

 Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)