Some "Yuge" War Wagons !

 Having sold a few of the textbook Essex War Wagons in recent years, I've accidentally drifted back into owning more than I will ever probably use as a result of picking up some because they looked interesting, and more latterly being given some 3D prints as giveaways along with competition entry. 

Mixing metal ones from different manufacturers, 3D prints in resin and even an MDF one does however lead to some serious variations in scale, or perhaps more accurately, "size" between the different ranges - and that is very much reflected here! 

This one was a 3D print handed out to competitors at the Akra Leuka Tournament in Alicante in January 2025.  I've added some Essex & Mirliton crew who are sort of randoms, all picked out of the bits box. The wagon is enormous and I needed to sit the crew on 2 lolly sticks to give them the extra height to see out. 

This cute little box on wheels is the Fireforge MDF kit of a 15mm war wagon. The wheels are a bit "Fred Flintstone" and it comes without the oxen, again from the bits box (I think Mirlitons Carroccio wagon comes with 4 which was too many to fit on a base) so these have at least got some wagon-pulling experience in a previous life

The lid of the Fireforrge MDF kit does however lift off, and they supply this folded-out lid that becomes a pavise shield thingy too. Even so its a huge blocky wagon.

Here is the 3D print and the MDF kit side by side. 

And, for a contrast, the 3D printed wagon and a Museum wagon side by side. 

I guess I know which one I'd prefer to be defending!

From the other side the sheer scale of the folded-out roof on the 3D print is even more striking.

Here is the front-on view. No room for horses or oxen on an 80mm long base with the 3D print.

This is the Museum wagon. They are ridiculously good value, especially in the annual Museum sale when you can pick them up for under £4 each.

Having draft horses as well is a bonus - my bits box is only so deep after all!

This is the 3D print again - the flag is one I Googled looking for a Hussite Flag

The imposing wall of defence - ideally they will only attack from this side!

I haven't glued the crew in though, so if needed they can turn around as a block of 4 and fight over this side too.

All in all a real mix - I suppose there is no reason all "wagons" would be the same size (unlike say, people or horses) but if I do get these all on table at the same time I am sure some eyebrows will be raised nevertheless!

The Huns - One Steppe forwards, two Steppes back ?

Three Hun-tastic battle reports from the Southern League Round 4 at Entoyment last weekend now posted, which see the Huns take on a variety of other Steppe-based nomads in some swirling and dramatic horse archery-rich encounters

You know the drill by now - nonsensical captions, vaguely related videos, commentary from Nasty Hannibal..

This time around you'll also no doubt be delighted to hear that I've also managed to sneak in a lot of references to saddle-fermented cheese, horseback flatulence and even to conjure up some AI-generated images that tie in with these historically dubious themes as well. 

Reports now online at https://www.madaxeman.com/reports/Southern_League_Bournemouth_2023_1.php

Hungary: The Northern Powerhouse ?

Just before it got really, really cold I took a trip Up North to watch Fulham be cruelly denied a valuable away point at the Ethiad by a rather dubious and very late Invincible Magic Robot Boy penalty

But, more wargames-related, that was followed the next day by a chance to take part in the final round of the one-dayNorthern League competition in Britains Coldest Building, the British Legion Hall in Eccles!

This was an open event so I took the Later Hungarians - a lockdown painting project which had yet to see competitive action in it's "Late" form.

The three games in one day saw the Black Army of Matthew Corvinius face off first against the Tuaregs, followed by two very different Medieval Scots armies, and all three games were captured for posterity and uploaded to YouTube with pseudo-tactical commentary on what I thought I was hoping to achieve when I was playing.

See for yourself with these three YouTube videos if the theory worked! 

Hungary for Warfare ?

 Yes, that deeply punnish headline does indeed herald the release of another fistful of competition battle reports, this time from the massive Warfare ADLG event at the end of last year. 

The five reports feature a newly-minted, lockdown-painted 15mm Essex Hungarian Army in action for the first time in a real competition, taking on a range of opponents from across the entire Eurasian landmass (and associated small offshore islands) in Feudal-themed battle.

There are also Goulash recipe videos, a spot of ATOMICS! when the Hungarians hit the desert of Tuaregistan, more flags than you can wave, erm, a flag at and a whole host of inappropriately captioned pictures of 15mm figures in action on the tabletop. 

 

So, stop fiddling with your Rubik's Cube, put down your Biro and shake the paprika out of your hair (eh ?) and settle back gently into 5 packed pages of Hungarian Warfare in these first Madaxeman.com battle reports to hit the internet airwaves in 2022.

Oh, and along with the usual ascerbic analysis from Hannibal, there's even a bit of Star Trek meme-ery too. Because that is of course the obvious thing to do when looking at the Hungarian army of the late Feudal period. 

Go on... beam yourself up to the Hungarian's debut competition!

 

Flames of War eBay listings for Clive

One of our club members, Clive McLeod sadly passed away a little while ago, and I'm now one of the people helping his family sort through and dispose of his wargaming collection. 

He had a number of rather nice Flames of War armies, but with not all that much FoW being played at CLWC at the moment I'm now listing a couple of them on eBay now, and will be posting another one later, with all proceeded going back to Clive's family. 

The armies listed at the moment include a rather stunning Free Polish Armoured Division and a large  many-options Hungarian force. In a couple of weeks (possibly after the new FoW book comes out on June 13th) I'll also be listing a brilliantly customized Hungarian Student Defence Brigade army complete with custom-made "comedy" booby-traps - although if you remember seeing it on-table somewhere before and are keen on it please get in touch directly.

The listings can be found here : My eBay Listings 

Here's some photos of the armies:

Hungarian Artillery

Hungarian Hetzers

StuG & Hungarian Infantry

Free Polish Armour

Free Polish Recce

Free Polish Commando's and Recce

Free Polish Shermans

Free Polsih Cromwells

Free Polish Armour

Hungarian Students

Hungarian Student's Booby Traps 

Hungarian Student Armour Support

Hungarian Student Recce / Armoured Cars

The listings can be found here : My eBay Listings 

Hungarian infantry & Archers

Having finished the Hungarian cavalry (and some of the foot) a week or so ago, the rest of the army pack has crept to the top of the painting pile. 

These are the two types of spearmen, as well as some bowmen:

This is EMED41 Hungarian 1300-1450: Heavy Spearmen. They have a squared-off shield that is slightly V-shaped in profile, making it very easy to print off a rectangular image and use it as a shield design. I based these in a defensive block as a visual counterpoint to the other spear figures. 

These are EMED40 Hungarian 1300-1450: Heavy Spearman, with an odd-looking notch out of the bottom corner of the shield. This meant picking a design where that bit of the shield could be missing!

All of these are printed out on normal paper, glued on with PVA, cut down to size with a new scalpel blade (very important when trimming these as otherwise the paper can fray), gloss varnished then matt varnished. 

Here's the two formations next to each other 

And all three units of the 'bastion' deployed spearmen

EMED42 Hungarian 1300-1450: Archers - rather an eclectic mix of figures in this pack, and I ended up painting the padded jackets in brown with sandy stripes to give an impression of the banded padding. 

The rest of the uniforms are mostly in classic Hungarian Green and Red. 

The rest of the army is online at https://www.madaxeman.com/main/15mm_Hungarians.php 

Medieval Hungarians - an army from Essex !

After finishing the 10mm French and the 28mm Assyrians, the next Lockdown project has been a 15mm Essex Ready Made Medieval Hungarian army. 

It was sold as a FoGAM army, but with a bit of a squint has more than enough troops to give me all the options and more for both a Feudal and Medieval Hungarian ADLG list. 

With extra time in Lockdown I also took this as an opportunity to take more time than I usually do in painting the army, and especially to try and do the horses properly, in a process which is fully explained on the website (and is very simple). 

I also experimented with a new, higher resolution printer we now have at home, and found a load of images for shields on the web, printed them out onto normal paper and glued them onto the shields of the figures to make them a lot better than I could ever hope to paint.

I also upcycled some old figures and added new shield graphics to them as well. In the absence of LBMS transfers for this army it seemed to go OK. I've posted the WiP and lots of photos of the finished figures on a couple of pages on Madaxeman.com, including a link to download a PDF of some of the shield graphics I used

There's still a few more spearmen to come, but the bulk of the army is now online.