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