Basing Saga Arabs for Cross & Crescent

I've posted a video showing how I used wood stain and builders sand to create a pretty decent looking basing system for my Saga figures - its online now and can be seen on Youtube or also on the blogger part of my site.

The video also has some photos of the new Saga Gripping Beast plastic Arabs, along with some North Star Berbers mixed in, which you can see here too.

Lists From The Worlds in Koblenz

My opponents FoGR lists from the recent "The Worlds" event in Koblenz are now posted on the FoGR Wiki.

You've got two quite different LoA Anglo-Dutch armies, a Transylvanian, Later Swedish, TYW German "Hoofmeister" variant and a Caroline Imperialist (with Swiss and a Later Tercio). All are on the wiki now.

The 6 match reports are underway and are currently 1/3 written already... here's a couple of game shots to be going on with.
 

(The wiki continues to be temperamental, and so I will try to fix it by implementing a version upgrade in the next couple of weeks and see if that fixes things - until then, sorry if it's a bit clunky).

The Madaxeman of Koblenz

Well, actually it's the Augenroller (Eye Roller) which can be found on the clock tower in the AltStadt in Koblenz. Its eyes move back and forth ticking off the seconds, and every hour and half hour its tongue will protrude from its mouth.

The Augenroller is Johann Lutter of Koburn who was a bandit. He was captured and after prolonged torture he confessed to his crimes and was sentenced to be beheaded on October 14, 1536. As he was led to the site of his execution he proclaimed 'Establish a monument to me and it will bring you luck!'.

While on the platform he is said to have rolled his eyes and stretched out his tongue for the spectators and once his head lay severed it continued to roll its eyes and flap its tongue. This was taken as a sign from god so the citizens established the Augenroller monument!

Match reports from The Worlds in Koblenz are on their way soon..

Saga in London!

After far too long a gap, finally some new updated material for this website - Saga Vikings in 3 separate match reports against Jomsvikings, normal Vikings and Franks.

I've endeavoured to take photos of the Battle Boards and explain what choices I made and why throughout the reports - hopefully it makes sense as a concept, although as you will find out the actual choices themselves appear to leave a little to be desired....

Match Reports of The Dutch at Campaign 2014

In a report spanning 5 pages and almost 10,000 words, you can revel in the exploits of possibly the blandest army ever to take the field on this website, the Dutch (of the 80 Years War - no, me neither) as they duplicate their World Cup heroics and take on a limited themed pool of other similar but generally better armies in a competition in which the last army to be used was the decidedly non-dull Pirates.

Have a look at whether lots of average troops can actually take on lots of Superior ones - and be amazed at how infrequently a 35 point ship can feature in 5 consecutive battle reports.

Wake up and Smell the Edam !!

King of the Scots!

With the 15mm Scots army still some way off completion, I decided to give them a 28mm Great Commander anyway, and see if this would inspire me to wade into the massed painting of kilts and sporrans needed to turn the 15mm lead pile into an army.

This chap was the result, from Front Rank Miniatures Jacobite ranges. His left eye has gone a bit skew-wiff, which I only noticed on these closeups and will need to fix, but apart from that I'm quite pleased with the wee fellah. The tartan is painted using my not-so-secret Tartan painting tips.

Arabs! For Saga!

I'm currently painting up some Griping Beast Arabs to make up an as-yet indeterminate Saga force. After undercoating the whole lot in white spray paint, a couple have been rushed to "finished" status to spur me on.

You may also spot a few North Star Berbers in there too for added variety. The Gripping Beast ones go together pretty easily, but need careful application of filler to hide the joins at the shoulders I've found so far. More pics to come as they progress further... 

15mm PSC Infantry being painted

I bought a box of Plastic Soldier Company's new re-tooled WW2 British in 15mm recently. The box is excellent value, with three full platoons of figures, including light support weapons all in one box - almost 150 figures!

I decided to paint them up "on the sprue" as an experiment - and here is a full walk-through of that process, showing the paints I used and some photo's of the finished articles as well :

By Fire & Sword Ottoman and Polish Commanders

At Salute 2014 I picked up a lot of stuff I didn't really need - but this sort of fell into the "might be able to justify" category - commander packs from Fire & Sword for Poles & Ottomans.

Admittedly it was as much about seeing what these figures looked like in the flesh as any real need to add more generals to these two underpowered FoGR armies, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much "stuff" each pack comprises. 6 Generals/officers/Musicians, wire spears (pretty long...) which are the pointed type, plastic bases (for By Fire & Sword rules I guess) and some nice high resolution flags on good quality paper.

The figures are now undercoated and added to the painting queue - from first impressions they are a bit lanky and the horses are the same, but the detail is very good if a little fine compared to some of my other figures. Pictures to follow when they are done (don't hold your breath..)

Match Reports from Oxford 2014

The wild and breechless Scots Royalists are coming down the mountain to raid rural Oxfordshire!

See how they fared in three comprehensive battle reports, with smatterings of the noble Scottish language embedded in them, together with videos from Al Murray, Robin Williams, Horrible Histories and The Clash.

Then lay back and revel in some truly "fan-dabee-dozee" post match analysis (yes, you do know what's coming next..!), but a word of warning - do try and avoid clicking on poor wee Jimmy if you are about to eat.

Enjoy!

Lists from The National League FoGR Competitions

Mine and my opponents lists from The National League (Campaign) are now published on the FoGR Wiki. You have:

• Later 80 Years War Dutch (x2)
• Hugenot (x2)
• Later Imperial Spanish (x2)

(hint - the Dutch one came first... and last in the period!)

Half a dozen manufacturers added to the 28mm Renaissance Manufacturers directory

Parkfield, Mirliton, Crusader, Crann Tara, Warrior, Scheltrum and Curteys all now listed as having some Renaissance ranges somewhere between 25-30mm ...

Want to make your views on them known?

As they say, vote early vote often !

Random Saga photos

A game of saga at the club on Monday night which may well have convinced me that having Harald Hardrada and the Varangians is the way to go with the Vikings!

Here are some of the lads storming across the ford (or should that be fjord?)

Wading into the Anglo-Saxons, watched by Harald (and his dog)

Thinking about taking on the enemy Warlord...

The rather battered Huscarls at least have captured a wench to take back to their ship...

Some proper battle reports to follow after the actual event itself..

Impressive service from Front Rank Figurines

I ordered a handful of 28mm figures to paint up as trophies for the Central London round of the FoGR Southern League from Front Rank Figurines only a couple of days ago (actually about 10 o'clock at night on Thursday the 8th May) and here they are, through my letterbox first thing on Monday 12th!

Not only is that amazing service, the figures are also absolutely stunning too. I'll have to go and vote for them on the 28mm Renaissance Manufacturers Listings page on this website !

Here are a Scottish infantry commander and a Louix XIV Era foot officer, both ready to be based and painted as 15mm FoGR Great Commanders.

Let's see if my painting skills can come anywhere near close to those of the sculptor ...

15mm Renaissance comparison photos added

I've added a few shots of the Donnington Louis XIV figures from the previous post into the 15mm Comparison gallery - so you can see them against Essex, Hallmark and Lurkio figures for scale.

They look to be a good match for Lurkio's range, but not so close to the others. 

Donnington Louis XIV Infantry

Today, for your delight and delectation, we present a series of photos of a Louis XIV era infantry unit using Donnington figures, in the final stages of being painted and based:

This is the unit just block-painted. I've not really got a particular army to use them in as I have a very full Essex Miniatures Louis XIV army, but I just liked these figures. Potentially they might be some sort of Jacobite unit in an otherwise Scottish/Irish army?

This is after adding the coat of Army Painter Strong Tone (the middle one in the range)

The figures are from Donnington's WEC ranges, sold as singles.

I tend to paint a base coat of a patch of dark brown underneath the apostles, and then almost drybrush them on in a linen colour. With the Army Painter as well they can really "pop" out quite nicely.

That rogue 28mm priest keeps sneaking into the shot on the far right, doesn't he..?

This appears to be after they have been matt varnished, this  time with a brushed-on Testors Dullcote. With just one unit on the production line, spraying is a bit of a waste so the brushed-on Testors is a better option

Now with the base colour painted in. I am half-tempted to put an ink wash over the rather bland bases, however this would mean reverse engineering an awful lot of figures so perhaps not... Anyway, they are now starting to look almost finished.

And this is with static grass added

A nice colourful unit, with a reasonable variety of figures and poses.

And a final close up of the shooters.

20mm Modern Figures

Not really Easter-themed in any way, shape or form, but here are some pics of the most recent paint jobs and a game of Ambush Alley Force on Force (the "The Alamo" scenario from the Road to Baghdad book) to enjoy

I don't play this game anywhere near half as much as I should, especially now we have managed to get the rules into an almost intelligible shape at the club... but buying the figures sure is addictive! 

QR Miniatures Pancerni

Just realised that I'd not posted any pictures of the Pancerni after putting up some carbine-armed horse from QR of Poland.

Well, here they are (click on any photo for a larger version)

I added the rather oversized lance myself - I think the figures actually come with swords and stuff, but I seem to have mislaid some of the hands (which are separate)

Nice to see someone actually shooting a carbine from horseback

This shows them next to Old Glory Pancerni. They are a little less bulky in these shots, but on the table the difference is really not noticeable at all.