A recurring question that appears on many forums for wargames rules is ‘what sort of basing convention is required to play these rules’. My favourite game, Never Mind The Bill Hooks, has no requirements for a particular type of basing. You can pretty much do whatever you prefer with your troops; square bases, round bases, 20mm, 25mm, Single figure basing, multiple figure basing, it’s up to the player. That said, the game is designed to account for casualty removal on a figure by figure basis. You don’t have to do this – you can use dice or some other method of accounting for casualties but removing the figures from units does clearly indicate how that unit is fairing in the game. For example, it is quickly apparent which unit requires a morale test at the end of a turn if half of it’s figures have been removed from play!
My new movement trays before assembly.
There is one other piece of basing that I think helps in the game – Movement trays. They allow you to keep your units separate from each other, facilitate easy movement of units in the game and help to define a units space on the table. I really like them!
In a new project, I have recently decided to add bespoke ‘crews’ to all of my Medieval Boats for my Never Mind The Boat Hooks games. Driven by my OCD tendencies, I wanted my troops to blend in with the ships decks, rather than have landscaped grass and flowered bases! The original attraction of ‘Boat Hooks’ was that we could use our WOTR troops for both games but seeing my heavily flowered and tufted bases on a ships deck was slightly irritating for me. I also felt that smaller bases would be better for the limited space on the ships decks and in the fighting tops. So, I first mounted the figures on 15mm round bases but then decided that the bases needed some extra weight to keep the figures standing up and so resorted to sticking the figures straight onto 15mm metal washers.
I then decided that it would be useful if I could use my fighting boat crews on land…..as if I needed more troops. Well, I could use them on land if they were on movement trays. So I sent to Warbases for some movement trays with 16mm round cut outs but asked them to make the trays the same size as if they were holding 25mm rounds. The reason for the extra size was to allow me to ‘landscape’ the trays so that the plain bases of the troops would be less obvious.
So, in picture format, here’s how I made the movement trays and how they look!
The top shows the’naked tray’! The bottom two trays have Vallejo paste and stones and ballast added. The first coat of Delhi Bazaar brown emulsion has been applied.The trays have been dry brushed with a mixture of Brown and Iraqi Sand to highlight the texture.Woodland Scenics green scatter added.Various Gamers Grass tufts added – I went for a moorland look.The troops in their new movement tray ready for a land battle.Back on board ship ready to conquer the seven seas…Well, the English Channel for a start!I now have another 24 troops for my army – not that I really needed them but…..
I actually have 60 crew that are now able to fight on land and with another 48 or so to do, I will have a rather formidable army that is able to muster both for land and sea battles.
I hope that the above is helpful to anyone thinking about basing. In the meantime,
I decided to have a break from painting Samurai and instead have a go at some individual models that I had stashed in my desk drawer. I started with a model from the LOTR battle strategy magazine. I have the full set of these magazines and since COVID, I am working my way through the whole collection, painting all of the models that came with the magazines. I have now reached issue 45 and the subject of this magazine was a mounted Captain Faramir in his Men of Gondor armour.
Captain Faramir
He was fairly quick to do but to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy painting him and I’m not entirely satisfied with the result but he’s done and in the cabinet!
A.T.A pilot RAF Winthorpe
The next figure is the free figure given out at Partizan. I have quite a collection of these now and I make a point of always painting the give away figures at any show that I attend now, rather than just putting them in the lead pile to gather dust. The figure represents a female pilot of the Auxiliary Transport flight. A cursory glance on Google showed the flight suit to be a light brown colour, so I used my standard paint scheme for British WW2 uniforms. A triad of Vallejo Burnt Umber, English Uniform and Khaki Grey. I’m quite pleased with this figure although I may have ‘over tufted’ the base!
Lord Percy, Baldrick and Black Adder!
The next three figures were from the company Battle Flag. I had reviewed these for Wargames Illustrated and previously painted the Bishop of Wells from the set. These were a joy to paint and I am quite pleased with the result. In the main, I copied the examples on the Battle Flag web site.
Another view.The rear of the figures
I have vague ambitions of creating an Elizabethan Army to fight against my Irish. If it does happen, these will definitely be my commanders!
Giovanni of the Black Bands
The next figure on the work bench was Giovanni of the Black Bands, a Giants in Miniature figure from Wargames Illustrated. I have a number of the GIM figures but only acquire them if they fit into my various collections. I was tempted to start a sub category and try to collect all of them but the last thing I needed was another distraction from the other projects that I have on the go. In fact I think there is a joke in there regarding sub categories – most wargamers would probably have a U boat collection if they had the space! I digress. Giovanni will be added to my growing Italian Wars collection. His armour looks blacker on the model than in the picture and I decided to paint him with white stockings rather than brown boots as shown in the WI sample.
Blaise De Monluc
Finally, another G.I.M. figure from WI; Blaise De Monluc. Again, I pretty much copied the WI sample but left off the saltire badge which I thought looked too fussy. I had intended to use Blaise as a Captain for one of my Galleys in NMTBoathooks but I forgot that was the case and used a standard basing. He will also be fine for my Italian armies though.
So that’s it for now. I have a few more personalities to complete and then it will be back to more Samurai!
As mentioned on my previous blog post, I have been working on no less than eleven Samurai cavalry figures that will nicely complete my Fireforge Samurai Cavalry units. The nice weather has made it difficult to justify being indoors painting, so these have taken somewhat longer than planned and to be honest, although ready for the table, they are still not finished.
Samurai in Red Armour
The eleven figures were intended to be eight Cavalry for a new unit and three commanders, as I already have two units of cavalry. Three seemed like a nice number! I had also decided to paint four in black armour and four in red armour for no other reason than to give a bit of variety.
Black Armoured Samurai at the front!
I also had some ideas for the commanders. The Samurai were well known for taking heads in battle, so I decided to add a couple of heads, well three in total, to two of the commanders. It’s a bit gruesome but the custom seemed to be that having taken the heads of their opponents, once the battle was over, they would ‘groom’ the heads, mount them on a spiked board and present them to their Daimyo.
The unpainted heads attached to the horses.
To make the heads, I took some spare heads from the Fireforge sprue. The heads without helmets are the obvious choice! And it seemed sensible to use the ones with their mouth open. I then carved the topknots off and used some green stuff to make the hair from which the heads would be attached to the saddles. I guess they probably would have used some sort of the twine or rope but it was easier to model the hair.
Close up of the heads – note green stuff hair!Another close up of the other head!
Once the greenstuff had dried, I painted the hair black and the heads in a light coloured flesh. I used a blue wash to get a more gruesome look. I guess you lose a bit of colour when your head is chopped off!
Finished headsClose up of the painted heads.
I resisted the temptation to have blood splattered over the horses. The idea of taking heads in battle isn’t exclusive to the Japanese but it’s one of their less civilised and gruesome ideas, I think!
Commander with Battle fan.
The third commander is from the Fireforge command set and comes with a cloak, which gave me an excuse to try another experiment. The cloak really needed a fancy design painted onto it but I had seen an idea on Facebook that used a nail art decal to add such a design. Although my free hand is improving, a decal would look better. So I sent for a batch from an online supplier – just search under nail art – the selection is immense!
Yes, I realise that the dragon is probably Chinese but I liked it. I had to cut it to fit but a coat of matt varnish sealed it in place and I think that it is better than anything that I could have painted! I have a whole batch of these to use and I will experiment with them on the Horo that I intend to add to the figures at some point in the future.
I used the chrome on all the weapons -it really ‘pops’ on the wargames table.
The third experiment or innovation for me was to use a chrome paint on the weapons. I think that this looks particularly good on the Katana, which would be nice and shiny and sharp, ready for cutting off heads…
The finished batch
So, for now my cavalry are complete…except that I will add either Horo or Sashimo to them and I plan to make some special commander bases for use in my new rules set ‘Never Mind The Bushido/Naginatas. However, I need a break from Samurai, so another project beckons!
It’s been a really busy gaming period for me. I think that I might have actually spent more time gaming than painting. First up was a trip down to Bristol to take part in the Bristol Independent Gaming Billhooks event. Organised by Mike Peters, this is one of the highlights of the gaming year for me. The event took place on Saturday 26th April but I stayed overnight on the Friday and Saturday. The Friday being the obligatory pre event meal and social.
The army marching to Bristol!
It goes without saying, that Mike and BIG Jim were superb hosts and the event was a fantastic success, extremely well organised and played in a most sportsman like manner. I would recommend that anyone that is interested in the Billhooks rules set and can put together an army attends if possible – they will have a most enjoyable day, win or lose and even if a newcomer, they will find there is a warm and helpful welcome.
I played in three games on the day. my first was against Tom Farrell’s Lancastrian WOTR army. Tom was fortunate to find all the scenery allocated ( randomly) to his side of the board and no doubt feeling threatened by the quantity of cavalry that he faced, set up a strong defensive position.
I decided to focus on the flanks and succeeded in driving off his cavalry early in the game. My Stradiots also threatened his weaker ward on my left flank. After weakening this ward, for the loss of my Stradiots, I daunted the two units, destroying the archers. However, the Billmen were able to rally, something that would come back to haunt me!
Landsknechts to the attack.
I still needed to break the Lancastrian centre, a tough nut to crack, particularly as one block had MAA supporting the archers and both flanks were defended by the terrain.
The Landsknechts approach – can you spot the unit of Billmen in the far left flank….
The Landsknechts gained an early victory, daunting the Billmen in the first block but the failure to rout these units resulted in the Landsknechts eventually being pushed back. Once again, Tom was able to rally a daunted unit, recovering a morale token. It was down to the wire with morale tokens short on each side but Tom drew a second special event that enabled him to launch a flank attack with his recently rallied Billmen from the left flank. It was game over for me as another four morale tokens were required as the Landsknechts routed!
Push hard boys! you can do it!
Next up was Nathan McGowans 100 year war English archer army. I was initially perplexed as to how I would deal with the firepower from the massed bowmen, protected behind their barricade of stakes.
How do we get through that defence?
Once again, Nathan had the advantage of terrain and advanced to plant his stakes, with his flanks protected by the board edge and a pond. There was no way that I would attempt a frontal assault, the stakes would cause disarray in any attacking unit. I would have to find another way in.
My gunsmen soften up the MAA!
The left flank was being protected by a tough looking unit of MAA. They would need some softening up before I attacked them. Step forward the Landsknecht gunners! They were devastatingly accurate with their fire and soon forced a morale check on the hapless MAA. The door was open!
You’re surrounded! Give up!
Nathan was forced to pull up his stakes and try to redeploy as my Stradiots and cavalry threatened the rear of his line.
The Line crumbles under assault!
With his defence now in tatters, my army was able to get into the archers and before long, they were routed. A victory for the French!
So with one win and one loss, it was onto the final game against Steve Coopers Lancastrians. Alas, I have no pictures of this game. I had begun to run out of steam, with the long drive down to Bristol, a late night, a reasonable intake of alcohol and the emotion of the two previous games, it was all I could do to try and focus on the game. It was another very tight game in which I lost, remembered that my Leader had a re-roll, nearly won, then remembered that Steve’s leader had a reroll before losing once again! This was a tough, close match with, I think just one morale token in it, Steve’s light Cavalry getting their revenge for being almost harried off the table with a final successful flank charge. I had the feeling that my luck was draining when 12 of Steve’s archers managed 6 long range hits from 12 dice, only for me to fail 5 saves…Ah well, that’s Bill Hooks for you! Never mind, there’s always next time!
I did have a very nice consolation prize at the end of the day though. My army was voted the ‘Best Painted Army’ so I was very pleased to have my work acknowledged by my peers, particularly as the competition was very strong, with some beautifully painted and detailed armies on display. Incidentally, if you would like some details of how I painted my gendarmes, check out my earlier blogs:
As for the rest of my gaming activity, I filled the following weekend gaming at Andy’s house. Friday night was a big Crusader game using the latest Bill Hooks adaption – still being play tested with Saturday being spent playing a big Samurai game. Phew! I’m nearly gamed out! You can read all about the Crusader game on the Bill Hooks Facebook group here:
Finally, although gaming has dominated my hobby time, I do have 11 Samurai cavalry on the go! Here’s a picture of the horses – I hope to write a blog showing them completed in the near future!
Samurai horses waiting for their mounts!
As always, I hope that you enjoy your hobby as much as I do!
A somewhat different subject to my Samurai collection this week! I needed a break from painting Samurai figures and so switched to another of my interests, building 1/48th scale kits. I intend to build a collection of both 1/48th scale tanks and AFV’s that have served in the British army, primarily to go with my wargaming collection. Although my wargames figures are 28mm and in theory, 1/56th scale, once based, they look more at home with 1/48th vehicles in my opinion. Of course, once I had built and painted a few tanks, I soon became attracted to the other possibilities available. I have now got a number of aircraft kits in my stash to be built one day – Spitfire, Lancaster, Fockewulfe and Beaufighter for starters! As well as these subjects I have also been long fascinated by the Nazi Super weapons of World War two. I have already built the Tamiya 1/48th scale V1 and I had in my stash a Pegasus 1/48th scale V2.
The Pegasus kit of the German V2 rocket
The kit was actually a clip together model and I wasn’t sure how it would go together. In the event, it was a joy to snap together, everything seemed to fit without a problem and there was very little scraping or filling that was required. The next stage was to paint it. I didn’t like the scheme shown on the box but instead went for a colour scheme that I had seen in one of my reference books. The image on the bottom right is the one that I based my colour scheme on.
I used this book as research.
Once I had primed the model, I then used my airbrush to spray it in Vallejo 70922 uniform green for the base coat.
Base coat sprayed on. Note launching pad painted with German yellow.
My first attempt at masking the base coat off to get the splinter pattern camouflage ended in disaster! I used Tamiya thin flexible masking tape to ‘draw’ the camouflage design onto the model and the attempted to brush paint it with the contrasting colour, Model Air 71011 Dark green. What a mess! After some thought I resorted to using Frog tape to mask off larger areas so that I could re spray the Dark Green.
V2 now masked off with frog tape – note the cut outs
The frog tape was excellent for the purpose and I used a scalpel to make some cut outs to add to the detail of the splinter camouflage pattern. Once I was happy with the result, I sprayed the nose cone matt black, added the decals and then gave the model a coat of satin varnish
The finished model
It’s fair to say that the decal is probably incorrect but looks good on the finished model. These days I am only interested in making a good representation of the subject rather than an IPMS standard model! I’m not entirely happy with the launch pad. I initially sprayed it in a desert yellow but I have then weathered it to a lighter colour. I’m not sure whether the launch pad was reused or was a one off item and I ended up with neither a pristine new pad or a well used one! Oh well! It looks good enough!
Here is the V2 along with a V1
I now have both of the main V weapons in my cabinet. I would love to add some of the German Rocket fighters and Jets at some stage but they will have to wait in the queue!
Another shot of the V1 with the V2 in the background.
So now it’s back to Samurai – I have 11 cavalry models to make and paint!
I have been promising to publish a battle report featuring the scenery that I have made for my Samurai collection. I did actually publish such a report, but on Facebook rather than on my blog. I thought that it might be useful to put a slightly expanded battle report into my blog featuring the details of the scenario and forces involved. So this is a slightly more ‘wordy’ blog than usual as I will publish the scenario over view as well as the two briefing documents for the players. I hope that you find these useful.
The left flank of the Ikko-Ikki side of the table. Note the Bamboo and woods to the side and the placement of the hill.
Temple Dogs
Scenario notes for both players
Both attackers and defenders may cross the large bridge without penalty or disorder if they can clear the bridge in one turn (2 actions). They may charge on the second move if permitted to do so ( Samurai and Sohei).
Neither side can cross the wide areas of the river.
Only skirmishers can use the small footbridge.
Units may cross the narrow lengths of the stream but will become disarrayed as per our usual games.
Artillery may fire over the heads of units that are 9 inches away from the gun and 9 inches away from the target without penalty provided that the gun is on a hill.
If artillery roll 2 or more sixes in a turn, it will destroy a section of the bamboo barricade as well as inflicting the normal casualties on the sheltering unit.
The Bamboo barricades confer a+1 save for any troops sheltering behind them ( except for artillery!). All charge bonuses are lost when attacking units immediately behind this barrier. In melee, both sides hit on a 5+ from the start. There is no additional armour save in melee. It’s harder to hit someone behind a fence but if you do it is assumed to be just as effective! You can’t cross a fixed bamboo fence but will have to fight through it. Or go around it!
A an attacking unit that moves up to a barricade may attempt to hack their way through it. It will take one full turn to do so and during this turn the unit may not take any other action. They will benefit from cover from the barricade if shot at but if engaged in melee before the end of the turn, they will fail to breach the barricade and instead fight the melee as detailed above.
You may not spot or shoot at a target that is inside the bamboo thickets unless they have moved to the edge and shot at one of the attacking units outside of the thicket.
The range for shooting and spotting inside the thicket is 4 inches. All units benefit from a +1 cover save.
The Samurai have no interest in taking Ikko-Ikki heads as trophies and the Ikko-Ikki player may refuse all single combat with leaders without penalty. So it is unlikely that additional morale tokens to be won in this way. The Ikko- Ikki player could attempt to initiate single combat if they choose to.
The right side of the Battlefield with the large bridge behind the Tori gate, the small footbridge and the temple tucked away at the back.
Ikko- Ikki Player
Troops
1 unit of Sohei Monks (armoured) 24 points
4 units of armoured Ikko-ikki 48 points
6 units of Unarmoured Ikko-Ikki (pointed as levy) 54 points
2 units of skirmishers 12 points
Bamboo Barricades 18 points
Total 156 points
Note that you have one samurai leader for the Sohei Monks that you must roll for his leadership – he cannot be a dolt! You have five leaders for the Ikko-Ikki units. Roll for leadership as normal but note that you may refuse single combat in melee without penalty.
You may deploy and arm your Ikko-Ikki units as you choose, either as blocks, lines or single units. Normal command distances apply.
You have NO Daimyo card.
You may deploy any unit up to halfway across the table and you may deploy hidden units in the Bamboo thickets using a marker to indicate the position of the lead unit.
The Sohei Monks may be concealed in the temple shrine. They may not be deployed in the Bamboo and will become disarrayed if they move into it.
Your formed Ikko-Ikki units may move and attack as normal through the bamboo thickets and wood and will not be disarayed.
You must hold the Temple for at least 6 turns. If you loose the Temple, you loose the game regardless of morale tokens lost.
The challenge for the Ikko-Ikki player is of course to hold out for 6 turns. Half of their army is unarmoured levy. However, they have the advantage of being able to move freely through the wooded terrain and have protection from the barricades.
You can see some of the Ikko-Ikki deployment here – bear in mind some units are concealed!
Samurai Player
Troops
1 unit of mounted Samurai Archers 24 points
1 unit of Samurai Foot 24 points
2 blocks of Ashigaru Bows & Naginatas 48 points
2 units of Ashigaru teppo 24 points
2 Cannon 18 points
2 skirmishing teppo 12 points
1 unit skirmishing Ronin 6 points
Total 156 points
Notes
If your guns roll 2 or more sixes in a turn, you will destroy a section of the bamboo barricade as well as inflicting the normal casualties on the sheltering unit.
Your formed units may enter the bamboo thickets and woods but will immediately become double disarrayed and stay as such without being able to remove the disarray until they leave the cover. They may only move at half speed inside the thicket and may not charge or counter charge.
You may not fire your artillery at the temple shrine!
Capturing the Temple will win the game regardless of morale tokens claimed. You must capture the temple within 6 turns or lose the game.
You can see that the Samurai have a much stronger force but are under time pressure to capture the temple. They cannot afford to hold back and try to out shoot the enemy. They are also hindered by the terrain and of course, the risk that their guns may self destruct when firing! The Daimyo card gives them a bit more flexibility when issuing orders as well as an extra morale token
The Samurai deployment. They avoided using the hill for the artillery and stayed well clear of the bamboo thicket! However, the woods, just visible behind the guns were to prove a danger!
Here is a brief battle report from the game:
Last night we played through a scenario for Never Mind the Naganitas with Ikko-Ikki defending a shrine from a local Samurai Warlord. Ian Callan and Austen Kime were the defending Ikko-Ikki commanders, with Andy Callan, Robert Andrew Kime and Wayne Ellington as the attacking Samurai. The scenario had a few traps built into it to challenge the players and to add to the pressure on the Samurai, they had six turns to achieve their objective and capture the shrine.
The Samurai wasted no time and went straight for the Temple. The Artillery eventually managing to knock down the barricades just as the attacking Samurai reached them. You can see the Ikko-Ikki defending the bridge with volleys of gunfire!
The game started badly for the defenders with an early foray by their hidden troops and skirmishers chased off and daunted. Add to that, the initial bombardment by samurai artillery was taking its toll, inflicting casualties on the Ikko-Ikki teppo men lining the barricades. The Samurai advance was focused and relentless! Add to that, Wayne, managed to win Six bonus cards in a row by rolling six sixes!
Of course, no Bill Hooks (or for that matter, Naginata) game follows a script and the game began to turn when the Ikko-Ikki pulled a special event card that enabled them to deploy a band of Ninja, who made swift work of destroying the Samurai artillery. However, the artillery had done its job and brought down two sections of barricades leaving the way to the shrine nearly open- a stream being the only barrier. Meanwhile, over at the bamboo, the Ikko-Ikki skirmishers brought down the Samurai cavalry with incessant gunfire. The Ikko-Ikki were feeling there was a chance as the turn count moved up!
The Samurai on foot charge across the bridge, brushing aside the Ikko-Ikki defenders
By now Wayne’s Samurai were in a position to assault the main bridge to the temple and successfully charged and routed the defending block of Ikko-Ikki. The response was a furious charge from the Sohei Monks that were concealed in the shrine that resulted in almost wiping out the Samurai and they retreated utterly daunted with just one man remaining!
The concealed Sohei monks come charging out of the Temple. They are more than a match for the Samurai and eventually put them to flight after a brutal combat!
It was still going to the wire. The Ikko-Ikki were fast running out of morale tokens and Andy had methodically moved his troops into position to deliver the killing blow. It all came down to turn 6!
In the foreground, the barricades have been destroyed. It is just a case of crossing the stream to take possession of the temple and win the game!
Somehow, by clever use of a forfeit card to thwart the Samurai advance the Ikko-Ikki prevailed in a tense final turn. The Samurai warlord had run out of time and as night fell he was forced to acknowledge failure. Well done to Ian(Ikki) and Austen(Ikko). Victory was theirs!
The close games are always the best! Ian and Austen managed to hold the shrine when all appeared to be lost!
The plan is that the full adaptation of Never Mind the Naginata’s will be published as part of the next Bill Hooks redux book later this year. If you fancy playing a Samurai skirmish/battle then I hope that you will enjoy the rules. In the meantime, there is a few months for you to paint your army in preparation – the lists above will give you some idea of the troops that you will need!
It’s fairly self evident that I have been rather pre-occupied with painting Samurai troops for my collection. I am getting to the stage where I have built enough to satisfy my gaming requirements but still have a few painting goals to achieve before I can move onto the next big project – whatever that is!
I picked up a box of the Fireforge command set at the recent Hammerhead show. The purpose being that I would have a nice Daimyo to lead the Fireforge faction of my army and give it a focal point. The three mounted commanders would also provide leaders for my Samurai cavalry contingent, thus satisfying my OCD requirement that all my units would be led by Fireforge models.
Front and back of the Fireforge command set
As you can see, the Fireforge set allows you to make 14 models ( although, confusingly, only 13 are shown on the rear of the box. My priority was to build the figures on foot, starting with the Officers.I also had decided to build three of the Ashigaru as musicians to compliment the banner bearers and the final model as an ammunition bearer for my Teppo Ashigaru. Although these options are not shown on the box, they are shown on the Fireforge website. I suppose I shouldn’t moan, but I will! I do wish that manufacturers would include a bit more in the way of instructions with their models or at least give a bit more help on their websites. To be fair, Warlord and Perry are very good at this, Fireforge are definitely not.
Spot the error!
As you can see, I managed to make the ammunition bearer with the arm attached to the wrong side! I only spotted this as I started to paint it. So unfortunately, he was relegated to the back of the work bench whilst I considered the best way to fix the error. Obviously, a arm removal and replacement is required but I may change his role from Teppo support to Yumi support!
Daimyo!
Meanwhile, I continued to paint the rest of the figures. First up, the sitting command group. These are my favourite figures from the set. The Daimyo, looks particularly stern, sat on his chair! I went to town on the stitching for these models and also added a pattern to the Daimyos shirt. Painting circles that small can be difficult, I often end up with a spot! It is easy to correct any errors by placing a blob of the base colour in the middle of the spot to get a circle again!
Give me some shade!
The Ashigaru holding the parasol is a nice characterful model. I did consider painting some sort of design on the brollie but decided to take the easy option and go for plain red!
Two other samurai in the set
There are two other foot samurai in the set. These will be officers for my Samurai units. I actually quite like the one that I have finished in black, white and silver but confess that he looks better from a distance than close up!
Banner men
Next up are the two banner men. The one with the black banner has a script that I copied from pinterest. I’ve no idea what it says! It could be something inspirational for the army but as my brush work isn’t the best, it could be closer to a shopping list! As for the Takeda banner, this also is entirely made up. I’m afraid that I can be a bit lazy when it comes to researching such things and to be truthful, the Takeka banners that I had seen, I didn’t like…As my armies tend to be fictional rather than an attempt to exactly recreate precisely an army at a specific battle, it doesn’t worry me too much. The Takeda mon are decals from Veni Vidi Vici.
Ashigaru Drummers
I wanted some Ashigaru Musicians in my HQ set up and the drummer team was an obvious choice. I was pleased with the finish on the drum. I used a red tone ink over Vallejo burnt red to get a nice lacquered effect.
Conch horn blower.
To go with the drummers, an Ashigaru blowing a Conch horn. He completes my contingent of musicians for now. The mon symbol on his hat is from the warlord set of decals.
The complete Command Set.
And so with the foot figures now completed the next project is the mounted figures and another cavalry unit. However, I will take a short break from painting Samurai – all that lace is straining my eyes!
Takeda Shingen.
One final figure to make it off of the work bench was the lovely Giants in Miniature figure for Wargames Illustrated, Takeda Shingen. He will actually be another unit commander in my army, so a bit of a demotion for him!
I had been given a couple of 3d printed Samurai cannon and the crew by good friend and gaming buddy, John Grant. As I had no immediate use for artillery in my set up I had them put to one side for a future project. However, that all changed when I was asked to put together a scenario for ‘Never Mind the Naginata’s’ involving the Ikko-Ikki. If all goes well, I’ll detail the battle in a future blog.
So the cannon were promoted to the work bench and painting started. Just a quick word regarding 3d prints. I am in awe as to the detail that can be produced with 3D printing – the rope work on the cannon is superb. However, I have my concerns with both the robustness of the final models – they seem to be brittle, ( I have had two break badly when dropped) and the longevity of the models once they are painted. I’m sure that all will be fine, I guess that my sceptism is yet another sign that I getting old!
The two crew to the left are the 3D printed models, the one to the left is the Fireforge conversion.
Back to the figures themselves. As already mentioned, they are superbly molded and are compatible with the Fireforge models that the majority of my Samurai army is made up of. The guns come with two crew members but I needed three for NMTN’s rules, so I made two ‘gun captains’ from spare figures from the Fireforge command set.
To make the bases for the guns, I used two 80mm x 60mm Mdf bases but as I wanted the gun crew to be removable in the event of taking casualties, I went for a sabot arrangement. I used some 32mm conversion rings to hold the crew. These were glued to the base, leaving a space for the cannon in the middle.
Base covered in milliput
The next task was to cover the base in Milliput, levelling everything off ready for the next stage.
Trial fit to make sure everything is OK – figures are at the block paint stage.
I then covered the bases in Vallejo texture paste and added some fine talus for detail.
The bases are now ready for painting
When it came to painting the cannon, I used a tried and trusted technique to bring out the detail on the wooden carriage. You can see a step by step guide in an earlier blog by clicking here:
The barrel and iron work of the cannon was painted matt black, and the rope work painted with Iraqi Sand, washed with dark tone and re highlighted with Iraqi Sand. As for the crew, I went for two themes, based very loosely on James Clavells Shogun. That is one crew in browns, the other in greys.
The Brown gun crew.The grey gun crew.
Rather than a step by step guide to painting the figures, if you check out my previous Samurai blogs, you can read about the method that I use to paint Samurai and Ashigaru. I usually start with a black undercoat and then give the figures a light dry brush in medium sea grey to show up the detail. After that, I use a block paint and wash process followed by a highlight of the original colour. I don’t always put a pattern on the clothing but as there were only six crew in total, I added some dots, circles and flowers. These look better from a distance! I also added some Warlord Games Takeda decals, which with hindsight perhaps was a bit OOT!
The ‘browns’ gun crew based
Once the figures were painted, I went back to the base and used my standard basing process to complete the models. This involves painting the bases with Delhi Bazaar ( a green/brown colour) emulsion and then dry brushing with lighter shades of the same colour mixed with Iraqi Sand. I used Woodlands scenic’s green blended turf and then a mixture of Gamers grass tufts to add detail.
The ‘Greys’ gun crew ready for action.
So with both gun crews completed, I am ready for battle!
Fire!
So onto the next project – completing the rest of the Fireforge Command set!
My last blog post was back in November, some five months ago. I haven’t been posting for a number of reasons including minor ailments, household projects ( decorating!) and an aversion to spending any time on my desk top computer – it reminded me of work, something that in retirement I am keen to avoid!
The good news is that I have been thoroughly immersed in my hobby and there has been no lack of progress there! So, rather than retrospectively detail what I have been up to, I thought that I would just post a simple guide to making some battlefield scenery for my Samurai. I have plans for a specific scenario for my adaptation of Never Mind The Bill Hooks to Samurai warfare – Never Mind the Naginata’s, that will require some additional simple scenery pieces and this is how I went about making them.
The first piece was a Bamboo thicket, in fact I needed at least three of these to cover the left flank of the six foot by four foot battlefield. To make the thickets I had sent for a bag of 100 plastic bamboo plants from either Amazon or Temu ( I forget which!) that at the time cost me £14.99. I then used a 170mm by 105mm oval MDF base from Sarissa Precision and drilled randomly spaced holes through it. It is then simple enough to push the bamboo through the holes – I used a blob of thick expo super glue to hold the bamboo in place.
The next stage was to add some texture to the base using Vallejo paste and adding some detail with Various sized talus from Woodlands Scenics. I confess that in the past, I would have just used some small pebbles from the garden for this job!
First base completed in it’s raw stage!
I think that I could have used the bases without further detail but I followed my usual basing scheme of painting the base with a green/brown emulsion, Dehli Bazaar and highlighting with further dry brush coats of the same colour, lightened with Iraqi Sand. I then added some Woodland scenic blended turf using a watered down PVA glue and the job was finished.
The middle base is finished, the other two are in progress. In the foreground the next project.
With the bamboo thickets completed, the next job was to build some bamboo barricades for my Samurai shooters to hide behind. I decided to use up some spare 120mm by 40mm MDF bases that I had in the spares box and I needed six of these for the scenario. To make the fencing, I used some bamboo place mats that I had bought from the pound shop. You’ll never guess how much a set of four cost…
Bamboo place mat and coaster chopped up for fencing!
Once again, I drilled the bases with six holes at 10mm intervals and after cutting the bamboo to about 50mm lengths, pushed the uprights in and secured them with super glue. I then cut the horizontal spares to length and glued them on with super glue. The diagonal bracers were also cut and glued in similar fashion. Incidentally, I used my trusty Zuron sprue cutters to snip the bamboo to length – just watch out for bits flying around your work room!
Rear of the fencingFront of the fencing
As you can see, I’ve used Vallejo paste and Woodland Talus to detail the fences. I did consider leaving the bamboo in it’s natural state but decided to paint it a chocolate brown and the inked it with Army painter strong tone to give it a bit of a shine and texture. I left the ends of the posts unpainted though.
Painted Fence.
I then painted the bases and added some scatter and some Gamers grass tufts to finish.
The finished fencing and Bamboo thicket – all matching bases!
I did consider adding some thread around the joints for extra realism but that would have meant tying18 knots per fence – 108 in total. I decided that it was time to move on to painting more Samurai! Allowing for drying time, it was just about an evenings work to make three bamboo thickets and six Bamboo fences. All being well, I will show you them in use on the battlefield in a future blog. I hope that you found this useful.
Yet another round up of projects completed rather than an in depth coverage of anything in particular. I have gotten out of the habit of writing a blog – something that I will try to address in the New year. I have been fairly busy, painting and working my way through my various projects, so in no particular order these are the completed models that have made it into my collection.
Margaret of Anjou
The first model is a small vignette from Athena Miniatures featuring Margaret of Anjou, Henry 6th’s wife and her page. I copied the paint scheme from Graham Turners beautiful book ‘The wars of The Roses’. Here’s a picture of the illustration form the book.
Margaret of Anjou from Graham Turners Wars of the Roses
Incidentally, I am just about to finish reading this book. As well as the superb illustrations and paintings by Graham Turner, the book is a well researched overview of the Wars of the Roses. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in the period.
Four more warriors for my Dark Ages collection
The next project was to paint four more warriors for my Dark Ages collection. The three on the left are Footsore miniatures, the figure on the right is a limited edition figure, I think, but I have forgotten who from! Painting these figures gave me a total of 48 Anglo Danes/Vikings that I have now moved on from Saga to allow me to field 4 units for Never Mind The North Men. No doubt I will be adding more next year!
Odin!
Whilst I was painting Dark Age figures, I came across this lovely figure of Odin from Footsore Miniatures in my spares box, so I painted him up, pretty much copying the Footsore example. I’m not sure where he will fit in to an army but he looks nice!
1/48th scale Swordfish
I finally finished a SMER 1/48th scale model of the Fairy Swordfish. The last part of this project was adding the rigging using stretched sprue. Very fiddly and time consuming. The swear box was in constant use but I’m pleased with the finished result.
The Bishop of Bath and Wells
I had already painted a foot version of the Bishop of Bath and Wells from Battle Flag Miniatures but also had the mounted version. It seemed a shame not to finish him off as well!
Landsknecht priest
On the subject of the Clergy, I also have a lovely Landsknecht mounted command group from Athena Miniatures. I’ve started with the easiest of them – the mounted priest or Bishop – the others are currently in progress. As you can see, I have yet to finish the basing.
More Ashigaru!
I’ve also finished another 12 Ashigaru from Fireforge miniatures. I now have enough figures to field two Samurai forces for Never mind The Naginitas, of which 140 are Fireforge with a similar number of Warlord and Footsore minatures to oppose them!
four units of Ashigaru!
Finally, I spent some considerable time adding decals to my finished units of Samurai/Ashigaru. I used a mixture of warlord and Vene Vedi Vici decals. It took me some time to finish this task as I had 7 units of 12 to complete. So I had 12 x 3 x7 decals to apply – that’s 252 decals! Going forward, I will add the decals as I finish the unit!
It’s been some time since I have written a blog post but the good news is that I have been busy gradually expanding my collection of painted figures and if not reducing my lead pile, then at least keeping it under control!
Rather than a step by step guide to a particular project, this post is really just a round up of some of the stuff that I have been working on. If I can get back into the habit of writing a regular blog, I will perhaps revisit some of the projects – I think that the making of movement trays might be quite useful.
Stradiots!
I had to get this unit of Stradiots finished for the Derby Billhooks BASH. They are from Perry Miniatures and I bought them last year at ‘The Other Partizan’ and they would complete for now, my Italian states army of Gendarmes and Landsknechts.
Elizabethan era Kern
The five Kern were from a set produced by Battle Flag Miniatures. I had already painted the three Gallowglass in the set and wanted to finish these to add them to my Irish army. The figure wearing the Morian Helmet is really more suited to the Elizabethan age but I doubt if anyone will notice if I sneak him into a WOTR army for service at Stokes Field!
The Irish Commander
I also finished the commander of the ‘Fighting Irish’ Battleflag miniatures set. I’ve hedged my bets a bit here and finished him in Spanish colours. He will work as a commander for a Spanish army of Conquistators, maybe a Tercico for the Italian wars or even as a commander of an Elizabethan force fighting the Irish.
Rohan Standard Bearer
In a change of direction, I painted this Rohan Standard bearer from the Magazine collection, Battle Games in Middle Earth. I have now reached issue 41 of this series. I really could do with a blog post rounding up my collection so far.
New Movement trays
I’ve also been making movement trays for some of my units. These Anglo Danes were originally a Saga force but we have been playing ‘Never Mind the North Men’, yet another spin off from Billhooks, written by Jan Ash. I’m really quite pleased with the new trays. I used 60/000 black plasticard and 1/8 inch balsa strip to make the trays. Once you have the first one made, you can use this as a template and it is suprisingly quick to knock out more!
Ashigaru Archers
I now have 24 of the Fireforge Ashigaru archers completed. The plan is to have a complete army based on Fire Forge figures for ‘Never Mind The Naganitas’ another NMTBH’s rule set that I am working on.
Ashigaru armed with Naganita’s
With these 12 Ashigaru completed, I am close to finishing the army. Another twelve to do and the troops will be completed.
One of the Seven Ronin
The last figure is from the Grey for Now ‘Seven Ronin’ boxed set. I painted him more or less at the same time as the Ashigaru, using the same colours. I’ll work my way through the set – they are lovely figures but I’m not sure what I’ll use him for yet!
Dinofelis (“terrible cat”) is a genus of Machairodontin saber-toothed cats belonging to the tribe Metailurini that lived approximately 5-1.5 million years ago. Dinofelis is known as a “false saber-tooth” cat because, instead of true saber-teeth, it had a cross between long, flat saber-teeth and the cone-shaped teeth of the modern-day felines. A Dinofelis was about the size of a Leopard or Jaguar.
Any pictures of these beasts are of course conjectural, as all we have is fossil evidence to go on. Some images show Dinofelis with tiger stripes, others with markings similar to a leopard.
The Deezee range of pre historic animals contains a model of a Dinofelis. Since I have retired, the DeeZee range is no longer available on line. However, there are plans to change this and the range should appear back on line in early 2025, all being well. In the meantime, my plan to personally paint each one of the 39 packs available in the range continues with DZ14, Dinofelis. Painting these miniatures gives me a pleasant break from my usual military subjects and a chance to indulge my imagination. There are two identical models in the pack but I chose to paint them in a slightly different colour scheme.
Version one – leopard spots!
The first version that I painted, had a golden yellow coat with leopard spots. The main body was painted with Vallejo Gold Brown 70877, over brushed with the same colour lightened with Iraqi Sand 70819.I used Ivory 70918 for the underbelly and face, highlighting with off white 70820. The spots were painted on with German Cam. Black Brown 70822 which I thought was less harsh than using pure black. I did pick out his nose eyes and mouth with 70950 Black and finished the model with a light wash of Army painter soft tone.
Version two – changed spots!
Version two of the Dinofelis was painted in a lighter brown colour. This time I started with Cork brown 70843 overbrushed with German Cam. Beige 70821. The spots were painted with Chocolate brown 70872 and then the centre’s picked out with Beige Brown70875 to get a ‘rosette’ effect. As with version one, the underbelly was painted with Ivory, highlighted with Off white and the details picked out in black. Again, a light coat of soft tone was applied to bring everything together and give some shading.
The two Dinofelis side by side.
So another pack of DeeZee can be crossed off of my list. It only took an evening to paint these models and as I have said, it was a nice break from my usual subjects. Indeed, painting the spots was quite therapeutic!
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