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

Re-Basing some Dark Age miniatures

I re-based some of my single based Dark Age collection. Removing them to replace with two on  the 25mm round base. I made many of these with Saga or Lion Rampant in mind when first created but I decided to re-base to help make my 'Kings of War Historical' units look a little fuller. Among these below is a couple of freshly painted Dark Age Gripping Beast warriors but it's mostly older ones.

Hacking these dudes under the feet among old sand, paint, glue and flock requires patients. Some wargamers have said that re-basing is something hobbyists should eventually do and it's been a very long time since I have done anything brutal like this.

The chain-mail wearing dudes make for a great Shield Wall look and feel when based like this and I have painted a whole stack of new ones which I will show here soon when they are completed.

For Kings of War I use custom made trays (Warbases UK) using the dimensions for those rules. Below are 'Regiments' which are based on the old 20 soldiers each on 20x20 bases in 4 ranks of 5 across.
Each tray has 3 of the new double based warriors. This takes the total up to 12 (not 20). I think a rule/guideline may exist for 50% +1 as a minimum for a unit of 20. I don't care much for that myself as I prefer what looks good or just the fact that someone has turned up happy enough to play a game. Even better if they have painted miniatures.

"We are angry and confused!"......."Are we Viking or Anglo-Saxon/Danes?" 

Cheers from Brendon

Viking bits swap plastic fantastic

These generic Dark Age Vikings in progress are rank and file to increase my marauding hordes ready for Kings of war Historical. I have been working on them for what seems an entire ice-age. Built at glacial speed months ago......it took a long time before any paint got clumsily splashed on them. I started painting them recently to break up a period of painting a lot of 28mm horses for a very cool project for a certain Canadian citizen. I don't usually like to stall or interrupt a project but it just started to feel a bit production line and I didn't want any of that to affect the painting. Anyway these rank and file sword fodder are made up of a variety of kits to get slight variations that will likely go unnoticed once in a unit.
Anyway on with the images....

'Shield Beater'.

Gripping Beast Viking Head, Saxon Arms, Body GB Dark Age Warrior,

Shield from Conquest games Normans, Slightly larger than GB shields.

'Resting Balls Stabber and Face Stabby Sword dude'

GB Saxon Bodies, Viking Heads, GB arms with hand/weapon swaps.

'Brace for impact dude'

 FireForge arms on a GB Body

 'Mash your face with Pommel and Make you duck dude'

 FireForge Bodies, GB every thing else

'Spliiting headache maker'

GB Body and Head, FireForge Mongol Arms, GB Axe

Anyway cheers for now from Brendon and hope you don't mind the fact that these photos I used the crappy setting with colour, focus and light.

Gripping Beast Vikings

Just a small post today featuring Gripping Beast plastic Vikings in progress. Made from various sets as detailed below.

These all have bodies from the Dark Age warriors set. The bodies come with one arm attached and a assortment of weapon arms for the right arm. I sliced off the left arm on 3 of them and replaced with arms from either the Viking or Saxon box.
The middle two have the same head from an Arab box. A big beard is well suited to the Dark Ages.
The head on the far left is from the Dark Age Warriors set but I sliced the top of the head and glued on a helmet sliced from a Saxon.
Head on the right is a Viking head.

Why do all this. It just adds variety to the look of the horde even if only I notice it.

The darker colours inspiration came from the Vikings TV series. Not my usual colours when painting Vikings but I thought I would give it a go and they sort of look almost look it's a tough leather material. Perhaps I should paint the sleeves a different colour to make it look as though they are wearing some sort of armless outer item of clothing.

I am excited by the impending release of Kings of War Historical so have been thinking a lot about expanding my existing hordes. Even if they are a Hollywood version of history, Which I have no problem with.

Cheers from Brendon

Kings of War game report

Varangur (Fantasy Vikings) vs Goblins with some Ogre allies 1500 points. The scenario was LOOT. 3 loot markers got placed fairly evenly along the halfway line between each army.
I had thrown this list together based on my Dark Age collection of Vikings and wanting to use my Wolf units painted recently.

Vikings got first turn and Tundra Wolves spring out and grab Loot (Green tokens).

Sneaky Reavers (Berserker unit) run into the central wood.

I gave them Potion of the Caterpillar which proved crucial.

Archer Troop (Night Raiders) on a hill and a 'LEGION' of Thralls (scummy low level slave scum).

They might be scum but they have the numbers to make them brave enough to hang around

for an age. To be rid of them they need to acquire a lot of Wounds.

A Warband Horde.

Near the warband is a 'Bloodsworn' Regiment. Better armoured Vikings than the 'Warband' class. 

My Cavern Dweller beast gets double tapped by a Troll Horde and a Slasher and is routed!

Tundra Wolves attack Goblin Sniffs (Goblins on Wolves).

Unexpectedly the Tundra Wolves went on to defeat the Sniff Regiment.

At the top of photo the Reavers burst from the trees and hack through an Ogre unit.

Following turn they route an Ogre Captain which allows an overrun into a Goblin horde.

The Reavers are out of control!  

A Goblin Horde flank charges a unit of Tundra Wolves and routes them.
The routed Wolves had previously managed a brutal flank assault on the Slasher removing it. 

After that the Goblins rotate ready to face the Warband horde.

The Trolls and Viking Bloodsworn clash turn after turn with the Trolls regrowing limbs.

Near the central trees is a Varangur Magus who keeps blasting wounds using the power of magical Lightning (all the while mumbling something about Thor or Norns and fate).

The Thrall Legion at the top turns to attack a Goblin Spear Chucka war engine.

Reavers do the same in the middle to a Goblin Rock Thrower.

The remaining Tundra Wolves gets ready to attack a Goblin wizard.

Shortly after this point the Goblins realise it's time to go do something else like collect mushrooms and we call the game as a Vargangur victory.

Varangur Army list.

Team Varangur

Some interesting events happened during that game and it was great to play my opponent who is always a good sport.

My small 'Night Raiders' bow unit get a pre turn 1 move which puts them inside the 24" range required for shooting.

The Tundra Wolves are a great fast moving offset for the Goblin Sniffs who also have a big move value. They can flank very easily.

In retrospect I felt that many of my Nerve checks against the Goblin (and Ogre) units was very high. Probably not reflective of average results.

The Thrall 'Legion' is going to be hard to shift in the future. However the units large flanks means it will get side hits more often and the low armour may mean it acquires wounds fairly easily. It's a unit I would target early in the game. I will try it again some day.

Cheers from Brendon

Let loose the dogs of war

These are Games Workshop Wolves that I think are OOP now. I purchased these already built on a Facebook group. I removed them from the original bases and gave them a repaint fantasy style. The freedom of a fantasy setting allows me to avoid all considerations for getting them to look realistic. Once I had created the bases I added the wolves without any pinning so it's just the soles of feet with super glue. The bases themselves are Renedra green plastic.



The Wolf packs are created for a 'Varangur' army for Kings of War. The Army entry names them as 'Tundra Wolves'. It will certainly give the Army a light fast attack option which could be very handy.
The solo Wolf will find another use as a Mongol Hero companion when I use the Elf options.

Not the best photography as it was a bit rushed. The white areas actually do have a shadow colour and a white highlight but the image is a bit bleached out to show this.

Cheers from Brendon.

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)