Off the Painting Table (March 2015)

On the 1^st March I attended the Overlord show in Abingdon. This is a nice sized, old-school type of show; not all traders are present and the quality of the games are of a club standard, rather than the beautiful, epic demo games found at larger shows. I went mainly to buy a few paints, a batch of D8’s, and to catch-up with some gaming friends. I did buy a pack of 28mm Jacobites from Colonel Bill’s to augment my existing collection. The figures were multipart to allow for different leg/torso combo’s, and were armed with large 2-handed swords and axes, which is what I’m currently short of. I immediately assembled the figures, primed them and set to painting. I must admit to enjoying painting tartan, especially when there is no uniformity required. A week later they were complete.

A nice touch to the show was the ‘gift’ of a free figure by Bicorne Miniatures on entry. The figure was a Napoleonic British rifleman and this would fit with my ‘Sharp Practice’ collection of figures (featured in a previous blog post). Single figures can be a pain to paint, but I grouped him with the Jacobites and this worked OK (I apologise for the quality of the photo, the camera seems to have focussed on the cart rather than the rifleman). Also at the show I bought a 4Ground MDF wagon (plus metal draught horse). I have always felt I lacked baggage vehicles and other ‘clutter’ on my gaming table, so I was keen to see if the offerings from 4Ground could remedy this. I really like the cart; cheap, quick to assemble, plus it looks the part. I’m disappointed with my painting of the horse; I should not have used a single colour scheme on it.

 

For my next project I plan to assemble a pair of retinues to use with the recently published ‘Lion Rampant’ rules, which have had many good reviews. I initially considered a couple of generic medieval retinues, but on further reflection I decided a Teutonic setting would be more interesting. The Teutonic Order figures could be easily sourced using FireForge Games Deus Vult range. The pagan Prussians would be more difficult. I view these to be latter-day Vikings; the Baltic remnant of the old Scandinavian empire. I could simply use Vikings and, in fact, I could just utilise my existing Viking figures. This seems like a cop-out, and I don’t think they will meet my vision of the Baltic conflict. Instead, I plan to use FireForge’s Mongolian and Steppe warrior figures as the basis of the Prussian pagans. To get a more hairy barbarian feel I will swop the heads for some spare plastic Viking and Medieval heads that are lurking in my spares box. I will also use some axe and sword arms, plus change some of the shields to get a less Mongolian feel.

I am still a bit uncertain and would happily accept any advice from gamers out there. Please add a comment, especially if you think I’m going down an incorrect path!

Number	Scale	Period	Manufacturer	Notes:
97	15mm	War of the Roses	Peter Pig
16	15mm	Pony Wars	Peter Pig	Casualty markers
12	28mm	C17th British Cavalry	Wargames Factory
20	28mm	C17th British Infantry	Wargames Factory
12	28mm	ECW cavalry	Warlord Games
14	28mm	ECW pikemen	Wargames Factory	Conversions
8	28mm	Jacobites	Col. Bill’s
1	28mm	Napoleonic Rifleman	Bicorne Miniatures
1	28mm	Horse and cart	4Ground