Continuing the revolution

I've cracked on with my terrain, soon my table top with be covered with snazzy new pieces.

Firstly, trees! I decided to bite the bullet and have a go at making them myself. They're not hard and helped along my a tutorial over at Mitch's blog i got some tips and had a go.

Masking tap is wonderful, and so far i've made 4. One's painted brown after a coat of glue and sawdust as a test, just need to drybrush it with lighter browns and greys then add leaves (the next hurdle).

They're not that hard, and a lot cheaper than buying them as my trees are rather big (6/7 inches for the smaller ones and the big one is almost 12 inches high).

My prototype stream sections, with the banks painted. Just need to work outhow to paint the water, as i bought some blue paint but realised 'streams aren't blue!'. A quick Google search and memories of Sunday ways back in the UK showed that they were more a muddy brown. So i'm painting one as a test (the back 2 are not painted, it's the light from my computer screen but it backs them look blue, doens't look too bad...)

Coat of brown and a pause until i can decide on the next course of action. Any ideas from the readers?

The barn is now painted and has some thatch too. I'm working slower now, in strips to get it flatter (not like my houses). It takes longer but i've got lots of things on the go so while it dries i paint a tree, the stream...

And finally to end the post, a little pig sty, copied from Mitch. I will do it planking (to avoid more paper mashé) with a thatched roof and wattle fence around it. Should make my village look more like a real village.

Terrain revolution

I don't usually get English wargames magazines, being on the wrong side of the Channel, so when i do get them they are well read. I usually prefer the smaller magazines as i find Wargames Illustrated is a bit like White Dwarf; lots on one subject and if you arn't interested in that period, there's nothing in it for you. Seeing ass i'm a medieval man, my period does not get covered as often, at least not when i'm in the UK to pick up a copy!

Where am i going with this? Well, i recently got the latest Miniature Wagames magazine, and inside was an article about how wargamers think; buying shiny new figures but not thinking much about their actual tables and instead being more interested in the detail on figures. Although i don't agree with all he said, when i finished the article i instantly thought 'i need some better terrain'. I made a little mental list; the stream, trees, a  road, bases for the trees (not just bits of brown fabric), fences and some buildings to make my table actually look real. Seeing as i only do medieval esque things, i'm lucky as i can make terrain only for the period.

'Not my words, the words of Miniature Wargames Magazine!'

So, work began in earnest, first off with a barn (i've been meaning to make one for ages) and some tests for my stream sections. I've made bases for enough straight sections to go all the way across my table, then i need some bends.

The barn, with a figure to scale. It looks huge, but it has to be and looking at other people's barns on blogs/forums it's the right size next to my other houses.

Last night i managed to continue on the stream sections, make some test walls (for a walled garden) and 40 inches of wattle fences. Now just need to texture them and paint it all before my figures arrive.

All i need now are some trees, pine trees as i'm aiming for a table to represent the Kaliad Shore where my Kaliads and Runissians will be battling.

Update, but not a lot

Thank goodness, exams are over!!!

Well, they've been over for almost a week now, but i haven't blogged until then. During the week of exams i did nothing linked to wargaming, which is normal (must get priorities right after all) but now they're over and i can concentrate on some hobby stuff (as well as signing up for uni, finding an apartment and all the other not-fun stuff).

I have some battle pics to unload onto a post soon, and in the meantime i have updated the Dux Britanniarum in the 15th century page. I realiased people were actually looking at it and i could imagine their disapointmen when they got onto the page as it was rather poor, so now i have grouped my changes together and added a couple of new ones.

Painting continues too but my figure still have not arrived. The shop doesn't even have them yet, bloody post! So in the mean time i'm finishing off the Runissians and Kaliads and continuing my 15th century figures, such as Ormond's archers.

Speaking of Ormond, you may have noticed my Mortimer's Cross project has slowed and to be honest i'm not really bothered. While doing my Runissians i realised that it was funner just to invent retinues and use my imagination. Although i might add some historical retinues to my collection they will not be doing any battle.

Heavy metal

No, not the music, just some more figures, this time in heavy armour.

With these made i only have 2 unassembled figures left, really need those new ones to arrive!

The Runissians. The left hand man needs a camail and perhaps something to show his surcoat at the sleeves, but the rest are done.

Note the shield is not the right one, just there until i get the heater shields. It is a cut down pavise if you're wondering.

The left hand man started life drawing his sword. It looks good, but the other arm looked rubbish so i tore it off and gave him armoured arms and a glaive.

LOOK AT THOSE HANDS!

Ithink i can blow my own trumphet and say those hands are good. Very happy with them.

A couple of Kaliad elites. Again, this might not be the final shield.

Again, missing a camail. The arms are archer arms, and the fully armoured pavise carrier uses a wargames factory arm and a merc arm, all cut down and covered in chain mail sleeves.

Close up sans shield.

Joyfully battling on

Good progress! I have now painted 26 figures for my fantasy world, 13 for each side.

Seeing as the Kaliads are the favoured at the moment, let's start with them.

The leader with a couple of elites and a pennon. In this world, when an enemy is defeated the victor may take any captured banners and rip a strip from it to hang below his own. So the strip below the pennon is from one such victories.

Close up of the converted leader (click for a much bigger image). Yes, blue is the Runissian's coloour, but the image that i used as inspiration looked SOOO good with a blue surcoat so i left it the same. It is supposed to be covered in lines of embroidered ivy.

Kaliad warriors. The one nearest to the camera wears a smooth breastplate, based on a figure from the Perry Agincourt range.

Painted but unbased, dismounted crossbowmen and levies. The two spear wielding levies have leg swaps, the other two are WIPs.

Now for the Runissians.

Almost forgot about the archer (with miliput hood).

Lesser noble and a couple of heavies.

The warriors. Still waiting for my figures to arrive so i've got some new shields and some cavalry.

Another raven. Basic, but looks good.

Again, unbased, this time with the leader for the Runissian band. The white on the rondels are supposed to be eagles/ravens but painting freehand on a thing that is about 8mm long is hard! So it's a bit blobby.

The bill man is another legswap, could be straight from the wars of the roses as. A change of legs and re-positioning of arms makes him look ready to unhook a horseman from his perch, or looking over the front rank.

On the workbench, some convertions that will be posted up soon.

First of many? (famous last words)

I did say yesterday, but better late than never so here they are.

Painted, based and ready to kick each others asses, here are 4 Kaliads and 6 Runissians for my alternate medieval world Norvarje.

Readers might recognise a couple of these men, the two with shields that i built almost a year ago. They were painted but never based so i thought i'd treat them and also gave the spearman a new round shield. I decided to use blue as the common colour for this band, to keep them together and make it look like a proper force, not a random mob of colour.

The raven will also feature on the lord's (or jerud i should say) banner. Although i'm not having badges as such, some patterns that look like birds might look good on shields and the like.

The Kaliads. Again, the ones with shields are older builds, the left hand one had been sitting unpainted until the other day.

The Runissians have blue and, as Kaliads love nature, they will have green and the khorv's ( a Kaliad noble) symbol will be a clutch of flowers of some sort (based on a bunch of elderflowers).

Painted but unbased, three Kaliads and (on the left) a Runissian. The boots turned out better than the first ones i tried, and i really like the metal as it actually looks like metal.

Note to self, trim pictures next time!

I might do more men later, in between revision, i also hope my new plastic will arrive soon so i can use them heater shields in the fireforge sergeants box!

Oddity

Bit surprised this morning.

I noticed my views went over 10 000 recently, what i didn't realise was that the last post had over 300 views, over a 100 at 8 this morning.

Slightly bizarre, i think it must be a bug, or perhaps my blog is just very popular (keep believing Max!)

Anyway, figures this afternoon, stick around.

Long time no post

The day in June 7th and my last post was May 25th. Almost 2 weeks without a post, time flies by when your having fun!

The lack of posts was nothing to do with lack of hobby productivity, i just really didn't want to take pictures, load them onto the net (especially with our amazing connection) and some time spend away from the games table was spend on work, as i've got exams in 2 weeks!

I have not been idle, however, for i now have a total of 42 converted figures, 10 painted with the rest

 either base coated or still in plastic. Pictures will soon appear, but there's no light left now so it will have to be tomorrow.. It also gives me time to do the bases.

What have i got to show then? Nothing much, just some drawings that i do to get ideas for my conversions. They're a bit un-animated, but i only use them to remember armour and dress. I might draw them in a pose i need to remember, but i'm getting good at doing standing men quickly so i rely on making the figures to bring them to life.

  

Some have been built, some are waiting to be done. As you can tell, i was too lazy to get out the scanner so took some pictures quickly.

Some earlier drawings i did, these were the initial drawings before i began my mad milliputting rampage.