steve wood – Page 25 – ARCANE Scenery and Models

New Range of Scenery.

Full-henge from N-FX & Arcane Scenery

We have been working on a new range of scenery with our good friends Nick and Tash at N-FX. The plan is to offer a comprehensive range of scenery for war gamers in all time periods and genres. A rather ambitious task but something that we have been keen to do right from the outset of the business. I guess the clue is in our name.

We already have a few unbranded products that we are able to resell under the Arcane Scenery name and we will start to bring all of these together so that they are more accessible to customers, along with a bit more help as to how best to use the products. Again, a pretty obvious thing to do but a massive task in itself.

The other issue that we have been wrestling with is that of pricing. There are some items that we can buy in from other suppliers such as pet shops, DIY stores, florists and other miscellaneous sources that we know will be invaluable for Wargames – I use many of these products myself. The thing is, will customers be prepared to pay the addition cost for the convenience of having these items in one place and being able to buy in suitable quantities or will they feel that they are being taken advantage of?

A good example of this dilemma is illustrated by the product, Basing Sand. Lets face it, it’s just sand! You can get it for free if you visit the beach. Or, if you go to a builders merchants, you can get a 10kg bag for about £5.00. There will be enough to last you a lifetime of basing! The other alternative is that you can go to a model shop and pay £5.00 or so for a small tub of the stuff. I guess, it is up to the individual which option that they choose. You either pay for the convenience or you get a hernia lifting the 10kg bag into the car!

I have digressed somewhat, back to our Scenery range. We decided that we would start our range with subjects that would support and fit with our DeeZee range of Ice age/prehistoric animals. We also wanted something that would be a little bit different. So we have started with a range of Neolithic ‘buildings’ and constructions.

Stone circle on Dartmoor

I have long been fascinated by these ancient structures. I was brought up in the West Country of England – Dartmoor has many stone circles, standing stones and stone bridges that I visited as a child and picnicked next to! That led to my interest in other such structures, Stone Henge, the Avebury Stones, and more further afield, the Moai on Easter Island. As a teenager of the ’70s I was also sucked into the writings of Eric Von Daniken who postulated that some of these monuments were made by visitors from outer space. All very entertaining, if now somewhat daft, but great background for Pulp gaming.

Moai and Lucid Eye Neanderthal Chief

We have launched the range with four subjects, a Moai, our version of a stone henge and two burial cairns. There is of course more to come, so that you will be able to create a complete themed look for your gaming table or just make a one off feature. I think that the scenery will be suitable for any sort of fantasy, pulp fiction or science fiction themed game. Of course, it will be ideal for an ice age or Neolithic setting.

Small Neolithic Burial Cairn

In designing the range, we have deliberately not gone for exact copies or scale models of subjects but produced our interpretation of the subject. The pieces are sized with ’28mm’ figures in mind but would be suitable for other scales. We have also ensured that there is plenty of texture on the models that can be brought to life with a simple dry brush technique when painting them.

Single Henge

I hope that you will enjoy these pieces and find them useful for your games. The range will grow steadily to encompass some of the more fashionable war games periods, Napoleonics and World War Two spring to mind! Over the course of my blog, I’ll put together a few articles showing how I painted and based my examples. In the meantime, if you would like to have your own ‘henge’ or Moai, click here.

Hello Sailor!

Royal Marine officers

Perhaps a subtitle of ‘Where’s Wally’ would also have been appropriate – you will see why later. This weeks blog will be a bit of a short one. I’ve been diverted from the painting table by a number of distractions, from family weddings to a nasty cold and I have been working on a set of Black Powder campaign rules for the club. However, I have made some progress with my shore party of marines. Having completed 16 Royal Marines, my next task was to start on the Foundry Shore party and Boarding party sets. The Former contains two Royal Marine officers as well as some well armed sailors, the later pack, just some mean looking sailors. Finishing these would complete my raiding party.

Sailors join the action!

As you can see the first batch of officers and sailors are just about completed with the basing to finish. I also have 4 more sailors at the ‘Dip’ stage- although I actually paint the quick shade on. That leaves another 4 to paint in the coming week and then it is on to my next project. I have been a bit lazy when it came to researching the sailors ‘uniforms’ and just copied the painted versions on the Foundry web site. To be fair, although sailors were issued with some sort of basic kit, from what I have read they made their own clothes and wore what was available. There was a bit more of a relaxed attitude taken to their appearance than to the Royal Marines on board. So when it came to painting the soft hats of the sailors, I went for a nice stripey design which in hindsight does look a bit like a night cap or a ‘where’s wally’ hat! Sometimes things dont turn out quite as I planned but I don’t plan to repaint these. It will no doubt amuse my friends when these figures do appear in battle…

Where did you get that hat?

For the time being, these figures will go straight to the cabinet, although there is a chance of an appearance on the table later in the month. For now though, they are part of my growing Caribbean/Naval force.

The last of the shore party to be painted.

Painting flesh – Charles Baynon Style

Shieldwall Berserkers Group

I’m very lucky to work in the wargaming industry, albeit on the peripheral of things as a retailer, but as a result I get to see some superb work by the master painters. I have a few favourites, some of whom may be familiar to you, Kevin Dallimore, Paul Cubins, Matt Parkes, Dave Woodward and Andrés Amián Fernández are just a few that spring to mind. I can only aspire to achieve the results that these guys produce. I do however, use them as inspiration and do my best to follow some of their techniques to improve the look of my figures.

Alfred the Great – Footsore

I can now add another name to the list of my favourite painters, Charles Baynon. Charles has been painting some figures for the Footsore web site and I was very impressed with his use of muted colours on his dark age figures that looked both authentic yet still allowed the figure to catch your eye. I asked Charles if he would mind painting some of the Lucid Eye figures for our web store and he kindly obliged. The results were superb and it was in these figures that I could see what had really impressed me with his painting. It was his portrayal of the face and flesh. How did he do this! Well, the simple way to find out was to ask him and Charles has kindly supplied his ‘flesh recipe’ below and allowed me to share it with you.

Lucid Eye Amazons Set 2

Painting Flesh The Charles Baynon Way!

“The ‘recipe’ for flesh it is pretty straightforward. I always undercoat figures black and then paint the eyes first. Having narrowed the eyes to a suitably thin sliver, I then paint around all the rest of the visible flesh with tan brown undercoat ( Foundry tan shade). The next step is to paint the bottom eyelids. This I do with Vallejo Basic Skintone. Although it is labelled ‘basic’ it is very light and makes a good highlight. The next step is to paint the rest with the base skintone. For this I use Army Painter Tanned Flesh. First I dot the tip of the nose then place two dots either side of the tip. The trick is to leave a very narrow line of the tan undercoat showing through to define these dots. After painting the bridge of the nose I paint the cheeks (being careful to leave a very thin line of the undercoat showing to separate the cheeks from the bottom eyelid) then I paint the top eyelids and forehead, leaving a very narrow line above each eye to serve as eyebrows.

Black Scorpion Pirate Women Group

You may have gathered that it is easier to paint ‘up’ to a line than actually paint a narrow line, so it is the undercoat that serves as the lines on the face. I then highlight areas of the face with Army Painter Barbarian Flesh, namely the tip and bridge of the nose, cheekbones, forehead above each eye and, very occasionally, the chin and jawline. The Barbarian Flesh then has increasing amounts of white added to it and I further apply it to areas of the greatest highlights ie. nose, cheekbones and just above the eyebrows. Once I am happy with the result the last part of the face I paint is the bottom lip with Foundry Terracotta Light.

Lucid Eye Female Explorer

I use the same basic recipe for hands, the lightest highlights being the knuckles and fingernails.
For women and larger areas of flesh I tend to use a more subtle colour mix. On women’s faces I often don’t have the undercoat lines to show the wrinkles! I also dispense with the lighter Barbarian Flesh. Instead I just use Tanned Flesh and then build up the highlights by adding successive layers with more and more white added. This gives a much smoother appearance and is more flattering. It is also the technique I prefer to use if painting large areas of bare flesh eg. a Greek javelinman in short tunic etc.

Lucid Eye Atlantean Sword Trio

One last thing, part of the smoothness of tone is also due to the number of times I spray varnish the figure at intervals during the painting process. I found that it was far too easy to, say, rub off the carefully painted knuckles when handling the figure. So I probably spray the figure when I have painted the flesh and then maybe another couple of times after I have completed another particular stage. Just thin coats of varnish are required. I use Army Painter Anti-Shine for this, it protects the figure but, unfortunately, it is not dead matt. The very last coat is the liquid version applied with a small brush. This really does dry to a true matt finish.”

Artizan Mexican Command

I’ve illustrated this article with just a few of the figures that Charles has painted. In my last blog post I mentioned that I was trying to develop two styles of painting. My ‘batch painting’ technique for the rank and file and a more careful traditional highlight & shaded style for my Commanders, Vignettes and Characters. If I can get to anywhere near the standard set by Charles, I will be delighted. I now have some guide lines that may help. I hope that you have enjoyed looking at Charles Baynons work. Should you wish to purchase figures painted to this high standard, Charles sells his figures under the handle of cwb21 on ebay and you can see his latest figures for sale here.

Lucid Eye Harranna of Avisha

Making the mountain into a molehill.

The Lead Mountain is sorted!

I’ve been banging on about my lead mountain for some time now but after some steady progress, I thought it was time to sort it out once and for all! So a rainy afternoon was spent going through my collection of figures and putting it into some sort of order. Thankfully, there wasn’t quite as much there as I thought. The first job was to get rid of all the figures that I had acquired that ‘might come in useful’ or although broken, could be repaired. These went into the spares box or the bin. No point in them hanging around.

The next category was the free figures given out at shows or exclusives given out with purchases. I am a real magpie when it comes to these figure but they dont always fit into the period that I am interested in and I have kept them because they are ‘collectors’ items. Some of them aren’t even very good figures! Well, they all went into a box marked appropriately ‘exclusives’. I cant see me painting any of these in the near future but at least I now know what is there.

Sorted by Category – Napoleonics win!

As I was going through all the odd figures, I sorted everything into rough periods. They were either ‘Ancients & Medieval’, Black powder era or World War Two. I only have a few bits & pieces for World WarTwo so it was fairly easy to box most of these up and they were the first back onto the shelf. The next category was the ancients and medieval figures. I’ve got a few Roman figures for that Legion that I will paint one day, some Dark Age Warriors that will expand my Saga Band when I get around to it and some War of The Roses Infantry to enlarge my Lion Rampant Retinue into a full army. None of which is going to happen in the next six month, so it was all carefully boxed and added back onto the shelf!

Finally, my Black Powder & Napoleonic figures. As this is my main point of interest at the moment, I sorted them out into Battalions where possible and boxed or bagged them as such. I have it in mind to paint the British 5th Infantry Division at Waterloo. It consists of The 28th North Gloucestershires (yellow Facings), The 32nd Cornwall ( White facings) , the 79th Cameron Highlanders (Dark Green Kilts!) and a detatchment of 6 companies of 95th Rifles. That said, it isn’t going to happen anytime soon, so these figures can go back on the shelf! And so it went, until everything was tidied away, in some sort of order and with some idea as to what I was going to do with each batch of figures.

Somehow, the process of sorting and tidying everything clarified what I need to do next to extend my painted army and of course reduce the unpainted stock to a manageable level. I dont expect to just keep ploughing through the pile in a set order but at least there will be some direction to my painting now. I’ve also resolved that all units will be finished using my ‘batch painting’ system. At least this way I will be able to complete 8 – 12 figures a week to table top standard, so about 2 to 3 weeks for a battalion.

However, for my ‘personality’ figures, I will try to develop highlighting and shading through the more traditional method of blending, ink washes etc. Perhaps, with practice I can raise the standard and speed of both methods.

Royal marines nearly ready for duty!

In the meantime, just to show that I haven’t spent the last week dreaming of future projects, my next batch of Royal Marines are nearly complete, I’ve started on my last batch of civilians and lurking on the back of the paint station is my Shore party, primed and ready for painting.

In fact, I was so pleased with my progress and the organised state of my collection that I decided to treat myself to some new Front Rank figures. Their latest releases includes some lovely civilians that had caught my eye and while I was looking through the web store, I thought that I would have a few of their British Commanders. After all, my lead mountain isn’t that big after all…

The Marines are coming – Part 2 – first batch arrived!

Royal Marines Shore Party

What! Two blog posts in one week! After the excitement of completing the Moai I thought that I would round up my progress elsewhere. As you can see my first eight Royal marines are complete and ready to take to the table. Fortunately, my gaming buddies are very easy going and they wont object if I deploy a unit of Royal Marines along side the rest of my British Army. As I have previously mentioned they will be part of my Caribbean force although they will also see service as part of a detachment in my Peninsular army – when I get around to starting it!

I’ve photographed the final stages of these figures being completed as part of my batch painting process. Once they were block painted, I gave them a coat of Army Painter Quick Shade.

Quick shade Dark Tone applied

The next stage is to give them a spray of Army Painter anti shine.

Anti Shine applied sparingly

Once the Anti Shine matt varnish is dry, I add highlights to the figures. This often just entails repainting the lighter colours – white in particular, the red on the jackets and retouching the metallics with Gold & silver as they can look too dull in places. On this occasion I also attempted to paint in the eyes and added some highlights to the faces – not something that I normally worry about with rank & file troops. Looking closely at the picture, you can see why I tend to leave the eye’s… A couple will need retouching.

Highlights added & basing is started

The final touch is to finish the bases. I used my usual ‘recipe’ of Vallejo Desert Sand to cover the bases. Then painted them with Vallejo Chocolate Brown, highlighted and dry brushed them with Flat earth & increasing amounts of Iraqi Sand added. I then added some green scatter & some of the new Gamers grass tufts and they are done.

Basing completed

The final process of repainting sounds as though it is a bit of a chore but in reality it is quite a quick job. I think that it is worth the time as it also gives you the chance to correct any obvious painting errors. For some troops, it is just as easy to leave this part out and go straight to the basing. After all, these are rank and file troops to be used on the table, not painting competition entries. It all comes down to a matter of taste and of course, time. If you would like to read my blog giving details of all the colours used in the early stages of painting, click here.

MOAI!

No, it’s not the start of an Arcane Scenery Haka, but the first in a series of terrain pieces that are being designed for us in conjunction with Nick and Tasha, two very talented people that make up the N-FX team. N-FX have produced special effects for the TV & Film industry as well as producing custom built costumes for the Cosplay community. You can see some of their recent projects here:

https://www.facebook.com/nfx.gds

We are working with them to produce a series of terrain pieces that will compliment our DeeZee range of animals and provide interesting and different subjects for dioramas and war games scenery.

The first piece out of the moulds was this Moai, or as most people will know them as, Easter Island heads! The model isn’t designed to be a scale replica of a Moai – more of a nod in their direction… If you haven’t come across these before, there is some terrific background on Wikipedia. We thought that they would be superb background pieces in many a setting. Once I had one to ‘play with’ I wanted to get it painted and based.

It’s a very quick and straight forward paint job. Simply spray with a black primer and then when dry, use a standard dry brush technique with various shades of grey up to nearly white to bring out the texture. I mounted the Moai on the MDF base using Vallejo Desert Sand texture. It was then just a case of painting to my usual method and adding some green scatter, static grass & tufts to finish. The plan is to do a step by step video together with N-FX in future so watch this blog!

In the meantime, I’ve just placed a couple of Lucid Eye figures on the base to how effective they will look. It was great fun painting the Moai – back to Napoleonics in my next blog!

If you would like you own moai, please visit the Arcane Scenery shop or just click here:

MOAI

The Marines are coming!

After lasts weeks adventure with Lion rampant it’s back to the painting table and the next project from the lead mountain. I have finished my small war party of Woodland Indians and they are waiting for reinforcements before they can take to the table. However, there is no rush to add to the band at the moment. Muskets and Tomahawks are on hold at the club whilst we explore a couple of other options – the Sudan is looking like the favourite at the moment!

Indian War Band

Of course that can be the problem with our hobby. Too many choices and distractions with the result that you can start too many armies and not finish any of them! I will add to my Indian war band in order to finish a skirmishing army for M&T’s. My next purchase will be a couple of packs of Rodgers rangers before deciding on which regular troops to add into the mix.

In the meantime, it’s on with ‘climbing’ the lead mountain that I already have. I would like to be in a position where I have painted everything that I have bought, so that in future, when my wargaming buddies at the club decide to look at another period, I can join in with a few figures of my own fairly quickly. And here’s the point of my ramble. The reason that I have a small lead mountain is that I bought the figures with a project in mind or because I liked them. Not to paint them is just silly. So as I surveyed my collection I saw a batch of Foundry Royal Marines lurking on the pile!

I bought these marines and a naval boarding party for a couple of reasons. They sort of fit in with my plans for the Caribbean force that I have been steadily building (Use this link to bring up a few of my blog posts on this subject). I already have a few ‘Battalions’ of Caribbean troops ready for action and adding a detachment of Royal Navy Marines seems like a good idea. The Royal Navy Marines saw quite a lot of action across the world during the Napoleonic period, obviously fighting in all the major sea battles and of course taking part in all the amphibious actions, particularly in the Peninsular War. In fact on this very day, 8th October, 1806, British forces, including the Royal Marines of course, lay siege to French port of Boulogne using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve. They were also very much in action during the war with America in 1812 ( another one of my interests), so having a detachment in my army makes sense.

I also fancied a ‘quick batch paint’ job after getting a bit bogged down painting the Indians. So with this in mind, I cleaned up the first 16 figures ( two packs) primed them with Army Painter grey and got to work painting them. I tend to paint rank and file in batches of six or eight figures. This method allows me to paint one colour on each batch of figures in a reasonable time and stops me getting bored. Using this method I can turn out about 8 figures a week to a reasonable table top standard. As a painting guide, I used the recently published, Issue 4 of Painting War, Napoleonic British Army.

That said, it was more of a colour guide and inspiration rather than a painting guide. I mentioned that I was going to batch paint these figures, which means I will block paint them with the basic colours, shade, using Army Painter Strong Tone, Matt varnish them and then re highlight the lighter colours to give a sharper finish & correct any obvious errors.

Batch Painting Marines

The colours that I am using are shown above. They are all Vallejo Model Color as follows:

70955 Flat Flesh – Face and hands

70950 Black – Hats, Boots, Cartridge box

70822 Black Brown – Hair

70984 Flat Brown – Musket Stocks

70864 Natural Steel – Gun Barrel, Bayonet & Buttons

70947 Red – Jackets

70899 Dark Prussian Blue – Facings ( Collars & Cuffs)

70820 Off White – Webbing, Lace, Trousers

70862 Black Grey – Gaiters & highlights on Black

70801 Brass – Webbing plate, badge on Cartridge box, detail on Muskets.

There are three other colours that I will also use for highlighting, 70996 gold and 70997 Silver to re-highlight and emphasise the metal work, 71077, Wood, to highlight and add detail to the musket stock and 70951 White, to really brighten up and highlight some of the white areas.

Block Painted nearly completed – just Brass to add.

You can see from the pictures above how far I have got with the Marines. They look a bit bland and washed out but the Quick shade will do a lot of the work needed to add depth and detail. The other massive difference will be finishing the bases of course! More to come next week!

Lion Rampant – The Nine Bastards!

Wargames Illustrated were running a second ‘Lion Rampant’ event day at WI headquarters here in Nottingham. I had originally thought that I would be unable to attend but a last minute change in family plans left me with a free weekend. There was a place available and so it seemed sensible to sign up.

Dan, from Wargames Illustrated starts the day with a briefing and wonders how he will keep 18 gamers under control!

I had my retinue ready to go and after a couple of games the week before the event, my knowledge of the rules was refreshed. My army was ready to take to the field of battle. My Retinue is based on a War of the Roses English Army and consists of:

Leader and 5 Foot Knights 6pts
Unit of 12 Foot Sergeants 4pts
Two Units of Expert Archers 12pts
unit of Bidowers 2pts

My Lion Rampant Retinue

The army is essentially a defensive unit, that although lacking maneuverability, given the right position, can hold it’s own against the more aggressive and mobile armies that are often fielded in the game.

Set up complete – players now check the rules…

The Lion Rampant day was themed around the 9 Bastards of the previous king ‘Jeffery’ from the first Lion Rampant day and involved each of the factions doing battle with the view of conquering their opponent thereby forcing them to switch allegiance to the victors faction. There would be three battles to see who won the day and as usual, Dan from WI had built in some twists and turns to the scenarios to keep the day interesting and balanced. I represented House Wagner – it was time to join battle!

The first battle is ready to commence

BATTLE 1 – BLOODBATH

My first battle was against Sir Mike who was fielding an army consisting of 2 units of Mounted Sergeants, 2 units of Crossbowmen, a unit of Foot Knights and a unit of Bidowers.

Sir Mikes’ army immediately advanced, with his mounted troops leading the way. One unit of Sergeants attempted to flank my army, the other going straight for the archers in the centre. The Crossbow men had moved up in support and his Bidowers made for the woods on my other flank, where they would attempt to harry my army from cover. My reply was somewhat slow, having failed a couple of activations but my Foot sergeants formed Schiltron on the Left flank, effectively stopping the Mounted Sergeants in their tracks. My Bidowers charged into the woods to meet the enemy Bidowers and hold them. Whilst in the centre, My Foot Knights stepped forward under the cover of my Archers to meet the other mounted unit.

The Schiltron holds!

A fierce encounter ensued in the centre, resulting in the elimination of the first Unit of Mounted sergeants. Although my Foot Knights had taken casualties they turned to face the enemy foot knights who were now ominously approaching. The encounter in the woods between the two Biddower units got off to a slow start. There was a suspicion of a party going on, but obviously at some point, someones cider was spilt and the fighting started. The result being that my Bidowers were routed and killed.

Foot Knights into battle whilst the archers await.

Although penned back on my start line, thing were not going too badly. I was helped by the fact that after a shaky start, my archers were now firing consistently at every turn, inflicting ever mounting casualties on the enemy. The other unit of Mounted Sergeants was destroyed by arrow fire as soon as it came into range, being no match for 24 English archers! My fire superiority was helped by the Foot Knights, who were standing in range of the enemy crossbows, taking fire every turn but fortunately, their armour held and they shrugged this off. The only real threat now came from the enemy Foot Knights as they were determined to close with my troops. As the archers at last saw off a Crossbow unit, they turned and fired at the Foot knights, slowing them and reducing them to half strength, even killing the leader but unable to prevent combat with my Foot Knights.

The enemy Bidowers in the back ground are feeling a bit exposed!

In the brutal fight that followed, my Foot knights prevailed but only my Leader, Kenneth Hotspur was left standing. He was then struck down by a final shot from the last crossbow unit – the cry went up ‘They’ve killed Kenny!’. Despite this, the archers avenged his death by forcing the last Crossbow unit to rout. Only the enemy Bidowers were left on the field and given their precarious position in the open in front of the Archers, they threw down their weapons and surrendered. Victory to House Wagner!

Battle 2 – The Messenger

Before the start of the second battle, we were given the chance to spend some of our victory points ( represented by Chocolate coins!) on small upgrades for our armies. I decide to speculate to accumulate and purchase an extra unit of Bidowers. I think these are very underrated by some players and can be quite a nuisance if deployed carefully. I had already noticed that there was plenty of cover on the tables and Bidowers and cover go well together!

The Messenger scenario involves escorting a messenger from one end of the table to the other, with the opposing player doing his best to stop you. Deployment is in opposing corners of one end of the table, with the player trying to stop the messenger allowed to deploy 6 points of his army at the far end of the table ready to meet the messenger! A further complication is that there is insufficient room in the deployment zones to get all of your army on the table, so some units start off table.

My opponent for this game was Sir Phillip, who had the following army: 1 unit of mounted Knights; 1 unit of Mounted Sergeants; 1 Unit of Mounted Sergeants with Crossbows, 1 Unit of Crossbows with Pavasis. A very mobile army but despite this, I decided to elect to be the attacker and to try and stop the messenger. I had a cunning plan…

The messenger had to be attached to the Mounted Knights, and Phillip deployed them and his two other mounted units on the table ready for the off! I sent one unit of Bidowers to the far end of the table along with my trusty foot sergeants. As the game got underway, the mounted units of Sir Phillip moved off and started their journey down the table initially leaving my foot sloggers behind. However, this soon changed as my Biddowers took up position in the Woods near to the exit point and my Foot sergeants formed schiltron, blocking the exit. As Sir Phillip desperately tried to bring up support (His Crossbowmen repeatedly failed their activation roll and stayed off table), my Foot knights found their ‘running shoes’ and had almost reached the far end of the table in support of my detached units.

You mean we have to charge those Bidowers again?

It was now that my cunning plan began to work. Sir Phillips mounted knights had to pass within 10 inches of the Bidowers in the woods. This would force the knight to make a ‘wild charge’ at the Bidowers. At this stage I was hoping merely to delay the messenger but my Biddowers in cover actually out diced the Mounted knights (the bonuses gained by the bidowers in cover put them on even terms with the mounted knights) causing them two casualties and making them fall back. Sir Phillip was not happy! As the Bidowers had held their nerve, they were able to fire on the mounted Knights in their turn, causing yet another casualty. Enraged, the Knights had to charge back into the woods again, only now they were down to half dice facing a group of confident Bidowers rolling twice as many dice in combat on even terms.

Once again the Knights were beaten back losing another casualty and once again, the bidowers stood firm in their woodland haven and poured arrow fire and scorn onto the Mounted Knights! Of course, whilst this was all going on, my Foot knights had gradually made their way to the scene of all the commotion and were now in striking distance of the messenger. Elsewhere on the table, Sir Phillips mounted sergeants had tried in vain to hold up the march of my archers whilst his crossbow men, having eventually appeared on the table were engaged with my other unit of bidowers ( in cover of course!) and my second unit of archers.

The killing blow was landed by the my Foot Knights, who although somewhat tired from their long march were strong enough to kill the last mounted knight and capture the messenger. Victory to House Wagner!

Battle 3 – the Final Encounter, Double Bloodbath!

The final battle saw four players fighting a last battle to secure the field for their faction. In theory, units from either player on one side could engage any opposing unit on the other side. In practice, it was a case of first deal with your immediate opposition before sending units to help elsewhere. Of course the real danger would be from missile troops who could take a shot at whatever unit happened to be in range.

The Final Battle!

My immediate opposition was from Sir Ben, fielding an army consisting of 2 units of Fierce Foot, 2 Units of Foot Knights and a unit of archers. I was somewhat wary of the Fierce foot. They are devastating units when charging and do not suffer from being in cover or moving through rough terrain. Despite this I sent my two units of Bidowers out as bait to draw the fierce foot into bow shot where they are very vulnerable.

The enemy are out there somewhere.

The game this time was somewhat stop go for me. I failed a number of activation tests and was barely able to move my army. I watched with increasing trepidation as the Fierce foot bore down on me. However, Sir Ben had allowed his army to become divided and thankfully, just as combat began, his fierce foot were unsupported. Even better, the first unit of Biddowers that he charged managed to skirmish their way out of trouble causing the now not so Fierce Foot to retreat! My archers now decided that they would join the battle and sent flight after flight of arrows into the enemy causing a rout in the enemy ranks, both units of Fierce Foot were destroyed.

We’re not moving – they’ll come to us!

Although victory now looked likely, my army once again refused to move with any urgency and was unable to exploit the carnage caused. Gradually, we moved up the table and every now and then the archers would take a pot shot, wearing the enemy down. Eventually, another unit of Foot Knights were left looking like pin cushions and the opposition archers decided that they had had enough and took to their heals! Victory, albeit in slow motion, once again for House Wagner!

So three battles fought and three battles won was a good return for the day. Despite our good performance, House Wagner did not finish on the winning team or accumulate quite as many victory points as some of the other players at the event. Nevermind, though, we had a fine hoard of chocolate coins and had been fully involved in a superb day. You can read the full account of the day over at the WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED web site.

Should you have the opportunity to attend one the future WI days, I would heartily recommend that you do so. The team at WI are great at creating a friendly atmosphere in which to play the games organised and whilst there is a narrative running through the day, it is not about individual competition but on a team result. Great fun, all in all – now I’m off to eat my chocolate coins!

If you would like to try the Lion Rampant rules they are available in the Arcane Scenery shop. Even better, I’ve put together a little bundle of the rule set with a box of Perrys War of the Roses Infantry and English Foot Knights for just £50, post free, world wide of course! There are more than enough figures for you to build your own retinue. If you would prefer, Mounted knights instead of Foot knights, just add a note to your order and we will swap them over for you – watch out for wild charges though, they can get you into trouble….

LION RAMPANT BUNDLE DEAL – RULES SET plus 2 Perry Plastic boxed sets

A confession.

Yes, I need to start this weeks blog with a confession, I’ve been guilty of cowardice in the face of the enemy! But before I explain my sins, an update with what I have achieved in the last week. If you read last weeks blog you will know that I am working my way through some Galloping Major Mohawks Indians. After deciding that it wasn’t practical to batch paint them, I went for the one figure at a time approach. The result is that I have finished one figure – Doh!

The latest Indian to join the war party!

Not exactly the progress that I was looking for. It seems that by painting one figure in isolation, I seemed to be drawn into correcting the most minor of errors, experimenting with different techniques and generally wasting time to produce a figure that whilst it is marginally better than my usual table top standard, is not going to win any prizes in a painting competition. So another readjustment is needed. Don’t misunderstand, I do want my figures to look as nice as possible but at the rate of one figure a week, it will be October 2016 before my Muskets and Tomahawks war band will be ready for the table…

The Latest ladies to join Little Bingham

Having said all of that, I have been painting some other bits and pieces. I completed another four civilians for the town of Little Bingham. These are Female civilians from Redoubt Enterprises that I picked up at the Derby Wargames show last year. As this years show is approaching, I thought that I better get them painted. My rule is that if I haven’t painted what I bought at last years show, I wont buy anything at this years show. Well traders, you can relax, I will be open to buy! The ladies were a quick paint job though. Just block painted, coated in Army painter Dark Tone to get the shading, Matt varnished and then the lighter colours re-highlighted. Little Bingham now has a population of 14!

The Market Square in Little Bingham – Not quite as busy as I would like!

And so to my confession. The other project that I have started is Napoleons Carriage, a really nice model from Warlord Games. When it was first released, I really fancied having a go at making and painting it. Now the observant reader will have spotted that this subject would not really fit in with my desire to have a collection of British Armies and their Allies through the ages! The plan was, however, to make the model with it’s doors open, surrounded by Prussian Hussars, capturing it just after Waterloo! Well it’s one thing to imagine these things and quite another to produce it.

Napoleons Coach assembled.

The model itself is quite complex but after the pieces have been cleaned up, they do go together nicely. As you can see, the model itself builds into something quite imposing. It was at this stage that I had my wobble. I went to take my scalpel to cut the door and chickened out! I had good excuses – the resin is too delicate, the door frame will be too thin, I’m not sure where to cut it, How was it hinged… and so on. Ah well I thought, I’ll just build it as it is supposed to be. I can still have some Prussian Cavalry halting it. And then I wobbled again. What colour should the coach be? Warlord have both Green and Red versions. What about the interior? How should I paint the horses?

All good questions and all good reasons to pause. So the coach is on the work board awaiting for me to pluck up my courage and get on with it. The truth is there are three things that are really stopping me, all of them in my mind. 1. I may ruin the coach when I cut into it, spoiling the model. 2. I might choose the wrong colours because I didn’t research the subject thoroughly enough and some clever dick will point this out to me. 3. The finished result will not be good enough and wont match the perfect image in my head.

Napoleons Coach under coated – dare I take a scalpel to it?

Of course, I know the answers to all of these. 1. I can always buy another one or just finish it as a battle damaged version. 2. Does it really matter, I’m not trying to create a museum piece but a talking point for the wargames table. As for clever dicks, I’ve yet to meet one that has painted his own models. 3. That’s always the case but at least I will have tried.

Right! Self talk over, where’s that scalpel!!!

There’s something about a uniform….

I mentioned in a recent blog post that I was having a break from painting my Napoleonic army and I am now concentrating on clearing down my back list of projects. This is really my way of painting all of those odd figures that I have picked up from shows over the past couple of years. To be fair, I am fairly disciplined when I go to shows and only tend to pick up items that will fit in to my planned collection. I have yet to go off on a complete tangent, tempting though it is!

Mohawk Indian Character

So next on my list of painting subjects were some very nice Indians that I had picked up from ‘The Galloping Major’ at a show at Owthorpe, of all places. ( see my review of the show here). I intend them to be the start of my French – Indian Wars/AWI skirmishing force that I will use in future games of Muskets and Tomahawks. My initial thought was that these would be quick and easy to paint, after all, there was no uniform to worry about. I could paint them in what ever colours I fancied. Well, not quite, it seems. Even Indians have their own style and one Indian tribe will tend to be slightly different to another. I guess it makes sense. If you are a Mohawk Indian, of the Iroquois tribe, you would not want to be mistaken for a Huron Indian, your deadliest enemy.

Mohawk with two Huron friends…

Fortunately, there is a great painting guide on the Galloping Majors web site to help out, so I had somewhere to start. I had of course chosen Mohawk Indians as my force ( they were allied to the British) but had also acquired a couple of Huron Indians – they were limited edition figures that had been given to me by friends that didn’t need them. Regardless, I decided that they would be part of my force and I would include them in the painting project. It was now that things began to get complicated.

Woodland Indians a bit more at home

When you are batch painting a group of troops in uniforms, once you have worked out the colours, it is just a question of working in a logical manner and every figure gets the same colour painted in the same sequence. These Indians weren’t like that. They are all dressed differently and would have been wearing different colours – they wanted to stand out as individuals! So even with just three figures, two of which were identical, I just couldn’t get a painting rhythm going. Sure, the flesh was all the same colour – I used Vallejo Beige red, washed over with a skin coloured wash and highlighted with the beige red again, with Flat flesh mixed in to provide top highlights. The hair is black. The muskets are painted the same, Flat brown stocks with light brown to give a bit of wood grain effect, Steel gun barrel & lock, brass for the fittings, Beige/Ivory powder horn. But after that, although the colours that I used were similar, they were not the same and they weren’t going on in the same place at the same time if you see what I mean! It has taken me as long to paint three Indians as it would to paint eight Napoleonic Prussians!

Mohawk Character is waiting for his base to be finished!

I eventually decided that the best way was to pick a few good colours and use these. So, Prussian Blue, Light Blue, Burnt red, Leather Brown, Light Brown, Iraqi Sand, German Camouflage Beige all made it on the the work board and I finished each character individually. The first three Indians are more or less ready for the basing process. As you can see I have started, with my latest preferred basing method. Vallejo Desert Sand paste spread over the base, the figure pushed into this and then a sprinkle of real sand as I wanted a bit of a rough texture for the bases – I’ve also added a ‘rock’ or two. I now need to paint these and add some grass & tufts.

I’ve certainly learnt a lot whilst painting these three characters and there is another six to go! Rather than trying to batch paint them, I think I’ll do them one at a time, it might be faster and will save me faffing about trying to figure out if I can use the same colour more than once!

An offer of roast chicken fails to impress the Indians!

STOP PRESS!

I managed to get the basing done, a few little corrections and took a few pictures using a light box. Here are the results. I’m a bit happier with these now. They are ready to endevour to persevere!

Mohawk Character, AKA Bubba!

Huron Warior 1

Huron Warrior 2

Three indians

Wheel Wagon, Pig and Partizan

It’s been a bit of a hotch potch week for painting. I’ve managed to finish a few bits and pieces. First of all, I was very kindly given one of the Historicon figures by those very nice guys at Warlord Games. The figure is based on a scene from the film ‘Waterloo’ when a soldier of the 1^stBattalion 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot is caught stealing a pig by none other than Wellington himself. You can see the clip here on youtube. Rather than add the figure to my ‘lead mountain’ I got on with him straight away, using the superb painted example by Andrés Amiàn on the warlord site as a guide. I had intended to rebase him and perhaps add a figure of Wellington but in the event, I finished him as intended. I can always revisit this option but for now he is done and in the cabinet!

Historicon Figure

Defending a hopeless position

The next project that I managed to complete ( well nearly) is my Napoleonic Wheel wagon. Based on a drawing from C E Franklins superb book on British Napoleonic Field artillery, it is now almost ready to take the field. The sharp eyed will see that I just need to make some wheel hubs to finish the wagon. I couldn’t find my leather punch that I use to make the wheel caps with, so rather than wait, I painted it as it was and I’ll add them later. I am writing a step by step article on how to produce the wagon and hope that it will be included in a future issue of Wargames Illustrated. If not, you will read all about it here!

Wheel Wagon and Limber

Incidentally, if you, like me are interested in the various support wagons used in the British Napoleonic army, you might find these two previous blog articles of interest:

Wagons Roll!

Water Wagon

Thanks to a very last minute invite, I was able to attend the Partizan Show at Kelham Hall in Newark. As you can see, I had a small stand of DeeZee Miniatures, Sarissa Precision buildings and Lucid Eye figures. This is the last time that Partizan will be held at Kelham Hall, the venue is moving to a much bigger and brighter venue at the Newark Show ground.

The Arcane Scenery Stand at Partizan

I enjoyed the show and although I was busy on my little stand – I was sharing with Trent Miniatures and squatting in some spare space between them and Wargames Illustrated – I did manage to have a look around. I wont review the show here, I would refer you to the Wargames Illustrated site for an excellent round up. The real drama for me was that during the set up, I managed to drop a case with all my painted figures…Aargh! So the last couple of evenings have been spent, retouching all of the chips and breakages that occured. Next weeks blog might not have much in the way of painting progress to report….

The DeeZee display before it was dropped….

The National Civil War Museum Newark

A rainy bank holiday Monday should have been an excuse to get on with some painting and modelling but it seemed a shame to stay at home. So I persuaded Julie, my wife, that a trip down the road to Newark to do some shopping and call into the new National Civil War Museum would be a good idea.

The museum was a bit of a disapointment – perhaps I was expecting too much. First of all though, it’s a great idea that such a place should be built and perhaps overtime it really will grow into a tourist attraction that Newark can be proud of. The building has been beautifully refitted – it’s a bit telling that having visited, I have no idea what it was before it became a museum other than at some point in the long distant past it was a school.

Costumes from the civil war

The staff get 10 out of 10 for enthusiasm and courtesy, they certainly were doing their best to ensure that visitors made the most of the visit. The final highlight was the presentation given by a Civil War re-enactor who gave a very entertaining and enlightening lecture on the roles of the Infantryman & Cavalryman during the civil war. The talk was illustrated with replica weapons, armour and clothing and delivered with knowledge, enthusiasm and humour.

Weapons Display

The museum itself was disappointing. There was one room devoted to the Civil War with the main focus being the seige of Newark. Attached to this room is a small cinema with a rolling presentation. There were two other rooms with exhibits related to the town of Newark. Upstairs, there were three or so rooms with a temporary display of photographs of recent civil wars around the world. Some of the photographs were quite graphic and at odds with the ‘child friendly’ ethos of the rest of the museum. The final room that we discovered (I use that word deliberately – the directional signage is not great) was an empty room that was once a dormitory for a school and the sole exhibits were the ancient graffiti left by the students.

The Museum has been lottery funded and most of that money seems to have been spent on the building and the technical gadgets that modern museums love these days. I’ve hinted that the museum was child friendly and there is a good ‘dressing up’ box so the kids can pretend to be soldiers of the time and there is a selection of interactive video displays. As to the displays themselves, it’s a bit like trying to solve a mystery by looking for the clues. The labeling is all over the place and difficult to follow, the logical sequence of the displays escaped me and the general layout seemed counter intuitive with no narrative. I think that it would be quite possible to visit the museum with no knowledge of the Civil war and come away with no knowledge of the Civil war other than it happened…

The cinema presentation was just as confusing. The films were of high quality and well acted but without context. One concerned the execution of Francis Hacker, the other the relationship between Charles 1 and Prince Rupert. If you didn’t know who they were before the films, I’m not sure if you would afterwards.

The final attraction is the augmented reality phone app that lets you follow the civil war trail around Newark. I didn’t try it as it was a rainy day, so I cant really comment as to how good this is. Newark Town and it’s surroundings has a fantastic history and heritage. I feel that the museum itself has missed the opportunity to tell the story and explain it all.

I guess my view is coloured by my hobby and as a war gamer with a keen interest in history, I found the museum disapointing and for it to claim to be the National Civil War museum is a bit of a stretch. My advice would be to save yourself the £7.00 entrance fee and go to the tourist information office and pick up a town trail leaflet and visit Newark Castle ( entrance free), go to the Queens Sconce (entrance free), go to the Polish Cemetery (entrance free) and spend your £7.00 in one of the historic coffee shops!

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Author Archives: steve wood