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

ARCHERS! Cavalry!

The Painting Challenge deadline is great for getting items over the line to completion. At some point it's time to stop painting. Miniatures can be overworked until the point of being really unhappy with the result. Sometimes it's best just to be satisfied that it's as good as it might be today and not tomorrow or next week. These are wargames miniatures after all and fill the function within a unit rather than individual display pieces.

That rambling aside below I have for you is 2 FireForge Plastic Mongols on horses. Each are on 50mm square bases.
6 Dark Age Archers with 5 from the Gripping Beast plastic box and 1 from Conquest Games.
4 Arab Archers from Gripping Beast.
1 x Norman Cavalry casualty from Conquest games.

Group Photo.

Morning light was a bit overcast. A monsoon over Darwin means cooler days which is nice. But the shadows on these hides a bit of the colour.

Looking at these Arab Archers below I will consider trying to get the next batch a tad brighter.

One Horse below got a small mound built up to give it a different look than its neighbors. I realise now in the Photos that may not have painted the teeth of the Black horse.

 You have reached a Dead End :) .

Been a long time since I freehand painted a Shield.
Cheers from Brendon during a nice Top End Monsoon.

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.