Category Archives: War Of The Roses

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here, including some nice army deals!

You can see our Woodlands scenics range, including water effects, here:

WOODLAND SCENICS

Gamers grass tufts can be found here:

GAMERS GRASS

Vallejo plastic filler and Milliput is available here:

FILLERS

MDF bases can be found here:

MDF BASES

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint number into the shop search bar;

Happy Modelling!

Arrow Barrow and more!

The launch of ‘Never Mind the Billhooks’ has caused plenty of excitement and prompted me to add a few more pieces to my army. I was still three figures short of completing my Cavalry contingent, which gave me a nice excuse to go shopping at the Perry’s…

Salisbury, Richard of York and Warwick

The three mounted figures complete two units of eight mounted Knights and give me a spare mounted commander to lead my light horse or another Ward if required. The pack that I choose contained models of Richard, Duke of York, Salisbury and Warwick.

Warwick, the King Maker!

I particularly liked the Warwick figure and decided that he would be one of my commanders. I painted the horses using the tutorial from Art Master Studio on you tube. It’s a bit long winded, but very good. I actually followed along when it came to painting the dapple grey that Warwick is mounted on. I used exactly the same colours listed in the video and the other ‘triples that Toby suggests also work really well.

Warwick turned out quite nicely so I decided to give him leaders base and a standard bearer. I still have half a box of Perry plastic WOTR infantry, so it was a simple assembly and paint job, following my usual process. I used a photocopy of the flag in the instruction sheet.

Warwick and Standard

I had also ordered a wagon from the Perry’s with the idea of using this to represent the ‘Extra Arrow Supply’ special event card. It would make a nice piece of battlefield scenery regardless. Assembly and painting this model was very straight forward and I went for a functional plain wooden finish for the wagon. I used Vallejo ‘Old Wood 310 with a few washes and dry brush coats to bring out the detail.

Perry Wagon being based

Wagon completed!

Whilst chatting to Andy Callan about the subject he pointed me in the direction of a picture in the Osprey ‘English Bowmen’ which showed a soldier re supplying the troops with a barrow of some description. I thought that it would be fun to make something similar – an Arrow Barrow! If you click on the link below, arrows (2), you can see the picture and Andy’s notes!

arrows (2)

I used a figure from the Perry’s set and did a bit of minor converting. The pose was pretty close to someone wheeling a barrow so the only changes needed to the torso was to carve away a bag that was in the way. I then used an Archers hand for the right side and a bill mans hand for the left side. I had to do a bit of re positioning and filling but it all went together quite well.

Arrow barrow under construction

As for the Arrow Barrow itself, I just used some scrap plastic card, a bit from my spares box for the wheel (A shirt button with the holes filled in would have done the job!) and some plastic rod and strip to build something that looked like a medieval wheel barrow. I’ve no idea how accurate it is!

Ready for priming once the filler is sanded down!

The load is made up of the canvas arrow bags that come with the Perry’s Light Cavalry set that I had spare in the bits box. One of my friends remarked that they looked like marrows…I quite like the idea that Baldric was sent to get arrows and came back with marrows….’Baldric run and get some arrows’.

Wagon and Arrow barrow completed!

Next up, I started work on the ‘Hidden Ditch’ special event card. I thought that it would be a nice terrain piece regardless as to whether I used it in Bill hooks. I’ll show you how this project went in my next blog!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here, including some nice army deals!

You can see our range of Evergreen plastic strip and Rod here:

EVERGREEN PLASTIC

Valejo plastic filler is available here:

FILLERS

MDF bases can be found here:

MDF BASES

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint number into the shop search bar;

Happy Modelling!

Stokes Field- The Prequel

At last, I managed to get a war game in before the latest lockdown! I joined up with Andy Callan, his brother, Ian and Mark Lodge of Jacklex miniatures for a full day and evening of wargaming this past weekend.

One of the battles that we fought during the weekend was a War of the Roses battle using the Never Mind The Bill Hooks rules. It seemed sensible to use the latest scenario that Andy had written for Wargames Illustrated, issue 394, ‘The one about the ‘Englishman, Irishman and the German’. It is based on a fictional scouting encounter just prior to the main event at Stokes Field, the final battle in the War of the Roses.

I’ve mentioned that both Andy and myself live in Bingham, just a few miles down the road from the village of East Stoke. I have visited the battlefield on a number of occasions, most recently, just a couple of weeks ago. I doubt that things have changed very much over the intervening centuries since the battle. The River Trent may be more constrained by it’s banks now but follows a similar route. The hedgerows may have changed but the lie of the land will be much the same.

Stokes field - the view to Hoveringham and the Trent

Stokes field – the view to Fiskerton and the Trent. It’s possible that the rebels camped in the far field to the right of Fiskerton (the white dots on the left of the picture!) the night before the battle.

Ideal Marching country – not so good when you are running from cavalry!

It looks like an ideal place for a battle as there are no major obstacles or hills, just a typical piece of gently rolling English countryside. You can see for miles in some spots, particularly as the ground rises away from the Trent above East Stoke. The view can be deceptive though. There are enough rises and folds in the ground to hide an army and some places where the land falls sharply is treacherous, if you are not careful. What was a minor inconvenience when you are advancing in good order would be a death trap when retreating in panic. A good example is the so called ‘Red Gutter’ where the rebels were cut down as they routed.

The drop down to the ‘Red Gutter’

The Red Gutter at Stokes Field

I think that the above picture shows the entrance to the ‘Red Gutter’ – an enclosed lane at the base of the rising ground behind the battle field, on the retreat route to the safety of the Trent crossing at Fiskerton.

And so onto our game. We more or less followed the orders of Battle and additional special rules that are detailed in the article, with Ian and Mark playing as the loyal Lancastrians and myself leading the rebel Yorkist alliance!

The deployment

I deployed my mixed contingent along the ridge line with the Irish Kern skirmishers holding the village, the archers and Gallowglass holding the centre and the German hand gunners in cover in the woods. Out of shot, Lord Lovell was leading the light Horse protecting the flank of the village. Facing them was a powerful force of Bows and Billmen as well as a unit of light horse and a group of skirmishing archers.

The Lancastrian army, a strong force of Bows and bills were massed on the baseline with their light horse facing mine. In the maneuver phase I decided to redeploy my light horse and moved them across to the right flank where there was more room to threaten the Lancastrian foot units. I decided that the kern were well placed in the village to defend the left flank. A protracted movement phase then continued, where the Lancastrian light horse advanced to the village and then withdrew without causing any consternation. Meanwhile, Lord Lovell had led his light horse to the far right flank of the Lancastrians and supported by the now advancing German hand gunners caught the Lancastrian bows and bills in some confusion. The Light horse charged home into the flank of the Lancastrian’s, routing them and their leader from the field! Game over with out even resorting to the cards!

We started again. This time the Lancastrians were not going to be caught by a sucker punch and they advanced to use their superior archery force to beat back the rebels!

Game number 2! The Lancastrians aren’t messing now!

This game was more of a match, with Lancastrian Archers wiping out both units of kern skirmishers, daunting a block of bows and Gallowglass and whittling down the rebel army. Once again, Lord Lovell and his light horse were able to save the day with a rather dodgy counter charge through Lovell’s own evading skirmishers…On reflection, the counter charge should not have happened, as whilst it wasn’t explicitly against the rules, it certainly pushed the spirit of them. With Lord Lovell on the loose again, the Lancastrian flank was tied up, allowing the Gallowglass unit in the centre to force a charge home against the bills and bows there.

Memorial at East Stoke Church

Whilst vulnerable against archery, the Gallowglass are formidable in combat and they were able to carve through the centre units of Lancastrian Bows and Bills causing enough casualties to collapse the Lancastrian army morale. Another very close victory for the rebels. Unfortunately, as I became more involved in the battle, I forgot to take pictures! However, after a post battle VAR check, over a beer or three, the general consensus was that although the Rebels were deemed to have won on the night, a review of the match play meant that at least an honourable draw would have been a fairer result!

Story board from the battlefield

In the post battle review, the counter charge by Lord Lovells light cavalry had certainly influenced the out come of the battle, perhaps unfairly so. Also mixing English bowmen and Irish Gallowglass in a block, whilst again, within the rules, is probably stretching things even though they were obliged to follow the ‘Brexit rule’ to check if they could pass through each other! It’s a point that will be addressed in the expanded rules and I wont cover it here. That said, the lack of initiative and undue caution by the Lancastrians caused many of their own problems. There were opportunities to kill off units that were just not taken. The archery proved to be dominant in the early stages of the battle but some units ran out of arrows and perhaps Mark was a tad unlucky at one point when rolling 30 dice needing a 5 or 6, he only managed 4 hits…Damp bowstrings I think!

Great fun though – next time I’ll take more pictures!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here, including some nice army deals!

WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED ISSUE 393

Happy Modelling!

Never Mind The Bill Hooks Scenery

I’ve still yet to start gaming and to make matters worse, my figures for NMTBH’s are on loan at Wargames Illustrated, so I cant even play a solo game! It’s all a bit frustrating, particularly now that the rule set is out in the public domain and other people appear to be having great fun with it! The upside is that the Facebook page and blogs have been a source of inspiration and there have been some great ideas out there to ‘borrow’. One of these is a custom arrow storm counter. It’s so obvious, I cant think why we haven’t made them before but we just relied on a dice next to the unit. Functional, but not so pretty!

Arrow counters

So as a side project I made up enough counters for my four archer units. I had some micro dice from a kids game in my stash. I also had a couple of spare command frames from the Perry’s WOTR infanty that have the spare arrow groups. It was a simple matter of combining these with a 25mm round MDF base to make the counter. I just covered the base in Milliput and whilst it was still wet, pressed the dice into it to get the correct sized dice cavity. To keep the dice from being covered in Milliput, I wrapped it in cling film. I then pressed in the arrow group from the Command frame.

arrows on the Command Frame

Once that was done, it was left to dry, spray primed and then a thin coat of Vallejo dark earth texture paste was spread over the base to tie everything together and a bit of ballast added for extra detail. I then painted it with my usual basing paint, added some Green Flock and tufts to finish. The arrows were painted with Iraqi Sand for the shafts and white for the feathers.

Hidden Ditch by Andy Callan.

The next diversion was inspired by Andy Callan. He decided that it would be fun to have some scenery pieces to represent some of the special event cards so that we could add them to the table if they were played. Andy had made a piece for the ‘Terrain Advantage’ card – a hidden ditch. Andy had also added a touch of humour – a couple of Coots swimming in it! The picture above is stolen from Facebook, hopefully Andy wont mind!

A new cart for my Army!

That started me thinking that perhaps a marker or piece of terrain for the special event cards would be good fun and an excuse to add to my collection. The ‘Extra Arrow Supply’ prompted me to order a cart (I already have one, but any excuse…) to load up with extra arrows so that it can make an appearance on the table if called for. I also liked the idea of making a terrain piece full of arrows to represent ‘Fauconbergs Gambit’. All I had to do was to make some arrows.

Evergreen Rod & Strip for arrows

I had some Evergreen rod that looked about right – pack 211, .040″ width. With hindsight, it is a bit on the thick side and a slightly smaller diameter would have been better. But I used what I had rather than wait for the better solution. To make the arrow flights, I again used Evergreen strip, this time .040 wide by .010 thick – pack #102. I cut the strip into lengths about 3mm – 4mm long and then using a sharp scalpel blade cut them into triangles. It was a bit fiddly but surprisingly quick to do. I then used Tamiya liquid poly to coat the top of the rod and using the point of the scalpel, picked up a ‘flight’ and attached it to the arrow shaft. Once three flights were attached, I clipped the arrow off and started on the next one. Again, it sounds fiddly but once I got into the rhythm, it only took 30 minutes or so to make over twenty arrows.

Arrow production line!

I then had a spare MDF base that I covered in Milliput and simply pressed the arrows into the milliput. Again, after priming, Vallejo textured paste was used to tie everything together and cover any imperfections and the usual paint scheme followed to finish the arrows and terrain. I’m not sure whether I will get to use it in battle, but it will be fun to slap that piece off scenery down, along with the card, if I get the chance to play it!

Testing the arrows layout!

The finished piece.

So I am now thinking of other little additions to make in between my other painting projects. My version of the hidden ditch is already in the planning stage, and the ‘False Colours’ or ‘Treachery!’ cards could be represented by a flag with the Stanley colours on them! I also need to make some tents to hold my Army Morale markers, so that should keep me busy for a while. I quite like the idea of the symbolism of adding something to the table when playing the special cards. However, I think that taking a water spray bottle to represent ‘Sudden Heavy Rain Shower!’ may be a step too far….

New gaming pieces fr NMTBH’s

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

If you have yet to get your copy of Wargames Illustrated, including the free copy of Never Mind the Bill Hooks Rules set, we still have some of stock at the time of writing. It’s available, post free here!

But it’s selling quickly so don’t hang around!

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here, including some nice army deals!

You can see our range of Evergreen plastic strip and Rod here:

EVERGREEN PLASTIC

Milliput is available here:

FILLERS

MDF bases can be found here:

MDF BASES

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint number into the shop search bar;

PINTEREST BOARD FOR WAR OF THE ROSES

Happy Modelling!

Never Mind the Bill Hooks Update

Never mind the Billhooks!

I had already written a blog post for this week but it seemed strange to be posting about Japanese scenery when the real hot news was the release of the new rules set’ Never Mind the Bill Hooks’, which is being given away free with the September issue of Wargames Illustrated. So a quick change of plan! The Japanese scenery article can wait until next week!

At Last – Never Mind The Bill Hooks is in Print!

Regular readers of my blog ( if I have any!) will know that I spent most of 2019 collecting and painting my War Of the Roses army and play testing ‘Bill Hooks’ with my gaming group, which of course, includes Andy Callan, the Rules Writer and Pete Harris, who as well as me, supplied the bulk of the painted figures that illustrated the rules set.

This months Wargames Illustrated, Issue 393 with free ‘Bill Hooks’ Rule Set.

Covid19 has curtailed any gaming activity for the time being – although we might start with a new Scenario that Andy has written for next months issue of WI, a small skirmish as a prequel to the Battle at Stokes Field. As regards painting, my War Of The Roses contingent is more or less complete. I have a mind to paint three more mounted command figures and of course, I will add the WI ‘Giants in Miniature’ Lord Callan to my collection. Other than that, my army is complete. As well as supplying the figures for photography, I also wrote an article showing how to paint your retinue.

Never mind the Bill Hooks Painting article by your truly!

As there is such a positive response to the release of ‘Bill Hooks’ I thought that I would just provide a few links to some of the Blog Posts that I had written in the course of the Bill Hooks project. The posts include a couple of battle reports, painting articles and references, details of how and why I put my force together and some of the Historical sites that I have visited. The posts are all to be found in the WOTR category here:

WAR OF THE ROSES

I thought that it also might be helpful to point you in the direction of my Pinterest board devoted to War of The Roses. If you are not using Pinterest, I would recommend it as a great way of collecting useful reference pictures so that you can find them when you need them!

If you haven’t found it already, there is now a Facebook group for ‘Bill Hooks’. Even better, Andy Callan is checking in and will answer any queries that you may have regarding the rules.

NEVER MIND THE BILL HOOKS FACEBOOK GROUP

As well as Facebook, if you are not in a forum, I very much recommend the Lead Adventure Forum. I find it to be very positive and encouraging, with plenty of help available if you need it. I think that there will be a ‘Bill Hooks’ thread but for now, head to the Medieval Boards.

LEAD ADVENTURE FORUM

Finally, if you are interested in the original inspiration for the rules, here’s a link to a blog post written in 2016, ‘Rules For Old Wargamers With Short Attention Spans’. They were designed for the Black Powder era as a set of Skirmish rules. The rules are available as a free PDF.

RULES FOR OLD WAR GAMERS WITH SHORT ATTENTION SPANS

I hope that you have as much enjoyment and fun as we have had, both in collecting and painting your Army and of course playing the game. Remember, it is a game, not a re enactment and I think that you will have more fun if you create an army, based on the period but with your own commanders.

Harry Hotspur Leads his retinue into battle!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

If you have yet to get your copy of Wargames Illustrated, we still have plenty of stock at the time of writing. It’s available, post free here!

WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED ISSUE 393

But it’s selling quickly so don’t hang around!

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here, including some nice army deals!

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint number into the shop search bar;

Happy Modelling!

War Of the Roses Army Progress

Following on from last weeks blog, I seem to have made some progress with my painting but as we are still working (thank goodness) and busy posting and packing other peoples modelling supplies, I haven’t quite finished as much as I would like. The strange thing about the ‘lock down’ is that it seems to have sapped my energy and whilst I have more spare time at the weekends and evenings, I seem to have done less.

The second gun in the army – a nice field piece from Perry’s

So here is a quick round up of progress. I have now finished the second artillery piece for my army, completing the gunpowder section! I will add some tufts – I tend to do this as a session on it’s own and ‘tuft up’ a number of bases in one go. I have no plans to add any more artillery – I now have more than enough for the average game of ‘Never mind the Bill Hooks’. That said, at some point in the future I may add the heavy Bombard that Perry’s make, just for fun and because it will make a nice centre piece.

The Artillery section of my army.

You can see from the picture above that I am missing four light cavalry from the rear rank of my Light horse. These are currently under construction and will complete the two units that I have planned. As regards, heavy horse, I’ve completed three metal Yorkist Command of Edward IV, Lord Faulconberg and Lord Hastings.

Yorkist command

This gives me 15 heavy horse but the plan is to buy the other Yorkist command pack with Warwick, Gloucester and Salisbury. I will then have 18 heavy horse. Two units of 8 and two commanders, again ideal for Billhooks!

Heavy Horse ready for battle.

The other sub project has been to finish the standard bearers. I intend to do a mini tutorial on Standards and how I apply them but I still have plans to add more. Here’s the couple that I have done using Little Big Man studio decals.

Banner men!

I have gone back and painted over the edges of the banners to hide the white edges but I notice that in the pictures of them in their units, I’ve managed to miss a few bits!

Warwicks Men at arms!

Norfolks Colours, I think but Faulconbergs men…

So My army is approaching completion. Just 4 light horse, 3 heavy horse and 12 more billmen and that will be it. Project completed. I wonder what I will do next?

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

We are still able to work safely and in a safe environment, following all Government advise to do so. If you need anything from our shop, please order as normal. The post is leaving us on time and as normal and we will do our best to turn all orders around in a working day or two as usual.

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here:

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint number into the shop search bar;

Happy Modelling!

Social Isolation and all that

I just could not avoid mentioning Covid -19 or the Corona virus crisis in writing my blog. In such strange times it would have seemed somewhat perverse to ignore what is probably the most momentous event to affect the country, if not the world, in my lifetime. However, I’m not going to record all of my thoughts on the subject here. There are enough comments, opinions and people minding other peoples business on social media and the mainstream media without me adding to the torrent.

I also have no idea how to pitch any comment. Anything that I write in a serious vain could be considered too preachy. A joke, and I’m not taking things seriously enough. That said, I cant help but try to find some humour in a very dark time. To put things in some sort of perspective, rather than my modelling output increasing, my painting hours have actually decreased over the last week, due in some part to lack of sleep and my mind being elsewhere as I firefight the next stage in trying to keep the business going through these difficult days.

Salisbury, Gloucester and Faulconberg in the process of being based

At least I still have a business – at the moment. Thanks to the incredible support of my small, loyal team, my suppliers, the fantastic postie ( I must get his name!) and of course, my very loyal and supportive friends and customers (often one and the same), we are still trading and sending out modelling supplies across the world. We will continue to do so as long as we are permitted to do so.

Everyday, for the last couple of weeks, we have been having a Grass Snake meeting at Arcane ( A grass snake meeting is a bit like a COBRA meeting, only shorter and less toxic) to work out with Julie, Hayley and Kevin how we will operate. Each day the plan has lasted until about 5.00pm when the latest announcement changes everything. For the moment, our latest plan is holding. Julie and I are working three days together, Hayley (AKA the Packaging Princess) is taking the two ‘quieter days’ and working on her own. Kevin is supporting from home and in reserve should one of us fall ill.

Another gun crew nearly finished, ready to join the York army.

As I have been married to Julie for 40 years, we have practiced social isolation on a number of occasions and staying 2 meters apart at times has certainly kept one or both of us alive…There, I couldn’t resist a joke!

Gun crew ready for basing

So Arcane Scenery is still trading, along with other online retailers and if we can help you with your hobby, we are here to do so. Despite everything, I have found some time for painting. I’ve said before that I find it very helpful and allows me to tune out of the world and for a short time forget whatever is causing me stress. As you can see from the pictures, my War of The Roses army is still growing. I may even get it finished over the next few weeks!

The next batch of figures primed and ready to paint.

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here:

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint number into the shop search bar;

Happy Modelling!

War of The Roses Light Cavalry – part two

I thought that in this weeks blog that I would show the progress on my War of the Roses light cavalry and show the method that I used to paint them. Once I had assembled the riders, I mounted them on painting sticks by drilling a hole in them and mounting them onto a wire. The picture shows them primed with a grey primer and the first two colours, Vallejo flesh and Army Painter plate mail applied.

Riders primed and ready.

The next stage was to block in the main colours, in this case Off white and Flat green. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I have no intention of creating a specific unit or retinue from a battle in the WOTR. The idea is to create a generic army to fight club battles. So although these colours are more appropriate for Tudor bowmen, these troops may well be fighting for a Yorkist retinue!

Block painting the livery

The next picture is a bit of a jump in the painting process! I finished the block painting by using a Buff/white mix on the bow covers and arrow bags; Vallejo old wood was used for the bows and the riding boots were painted with Vallejo Orange brown or light brown to mix things up a bit! The belts and accessories were painted with either leather brown or burnt red. I then brushed on Army painter Dark Tone quick shade. Once dry, the figures were sprayed with a matt varnish and then the white, flesh and metals re highlighted to give a crisp finish.

Finished figures on their horses.

Close up of Light cavalry

Once I was happy with the riders, I finished the basing using my usual technique that I have covered many times before in my blogs.

The completed unit of light Cavalry

Close up of the unit – I have since been back and added some detail to the Commanders face.

With eight mounted bowmen finished, it was on to the remaining four cavalry in the box! I have painted these as Scurrers or Prickers and again, I have chosen the livery colours at random, using burnt red and yellow. Here they are still mounted in their painting sticks!

Scurrers!

Here’s the completed models on their horses. With these now finished I just need another four to make up the unit. I’m not sure whether to get some metals or see if I can just get an extra sprue. In the meantime, I’ve taken a break from the cavalry and I’m now working on some more Footknights and Characters.

Light Cavalry on the prowl!

I do need to add some flags and Standards to the unit – I’ve just received some very nice standards from Citadel six flags but have yet to try them. My army is approaching completion, with some 200+ figures now painted and based. It is lacking flags though – watch this space!

War of the Roses Army

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here:

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint number into the shop search bar;

VALLEJO DARK EARTH TEXTURE

You can find the Vallejo texture paste here:

‘Never mind the Bill Hooks’ will be available as a full colour supplement with the June edition of Wargames Illustrated. If you would like the current issue, click here:

Happy Modelling!

War of the Roses Light Cavalry Part one

My War of the Roses army is approaching completion, although the project is suffering from a bit of ‘creep’ with my habit of finding that just one more unit would be a good idea! The light cavalry were supposed to be the final unit that I would add. The challenge to my OCD/collectors habit was that the Perry Miniatures plastic box set gives you 12 light cavalry and I only needed 8 to make a unit. My solution to this dilemma was to decide to build 8 of the cavalry as mounted bowmen and then make another unit of 8 Scurrers by adding some metals to the four remaining plastic figures.

Perry Light Cavalry assembled

But first of all, I needed to get the plastics completed. I assembled all of the figures in the box first and then decided to paint them, six at a time, starting with the horses.

Primed horses

As you can see, I primed four of the horses in brown, one in black and the last one in grey. The different base coats giving an indication of the different colours that I would paint the horses! By the way, I use army painter rattle can sprays to prime my models. When it came to the colours for the unit, I had decided that I would paint them in green and white for no other reason than I fancied this combination. History purists might find this cavalier approach ( Ooh! Good pun!) somewhat unacceptable, particularly as the colours are close to Henry Tudors’, who was a Lancastrian and the rest of my army is based on Yorkist commanders. However, I am painting units for the rules set that we are using’ Never Mind the Billhooks’, rather than creating a specific WOTR army and I feel comfortable in mixing and matching as I see fit. Lets just say that these troops are Cheshire journeymen happy to draw a bow for who ever pays them – in this case, Lord Harry Hotspur!

The four brown horses.

I painted the four brown horses more or less as Bays, using a mixture of browns and washes layered on using my dry/wet brush technique. The horse with the light mane was painted using Green Ochre – I would never have chosen this colour based on it’s name but it does work well! It was then a case of painting the livery in green or green and white.

The black horse

The Black horse was highlighted with black/grey and then very lightly with light grey. I used Buff to pick out some of the livery, again not because of any historical accuracy but because I liked the effect!

The white horse was painted in exactly the same way as I painted Richard III’s horse (see last weeks blog) and so I had my first six horses ready for basing.

Six Light Cavalry Horses ready for basing.

In next weeks blog. I’ll detail how I painted the riders and completed the unit, but for now here’s a picture of the first six figures that I have completed – The basing is still to be finished.

Mounted Bowmen

The sharp eyed amongst you will see that a Prussian Jaeger has sneaked into the picture! So with the six mounted bowmen completed it is onto the commander and standard bearer to give me my eight mounted bowmen.

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here:

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint number into the shop search bar;

VALLEJO DARK EARTH TEXTURE

You can find the Vallejo texture paste here:

‘Never mind the Bill Hooks’ will be available as a full colour supplement with the June edition of Wargames Illustrated. If you would like the current issue, click here:

Happy Modelling!

Arise King Richard III!

When the remains of King Richard were discovered in a car park in Leicester, (just down the A46 from us), there was a great deal of media attention, as you can imagine. As far as I was concerned, the nicest item that I saw to commemorate the event, was the model by Perry Miniatures. I really liked the thought that had gone into the model and the gentle humour in showing King Richard bursting out of the car park on his steed! I had wanted to get one from the moment it was released but had been obsessed with my Napoleonic collection and so had not added it to my lead pile. With my interest in the War of the Roses, and the new rules set that we had been play testing, I now had an excuse to get the model. I also wanted to paint something for the rules writer, Andy Callan, who has spent hours re-writing and fine tuning the rules set after each of our play tests, having had to put up with yet more ‘feedback’.

Preparing the models for painting.

So rather than one model, I bought two, figuring that it would not take very much longer to paint two of the same model. I had also decided to convert one of the models slightly, so that King Richard was holding a banner rather than his sword, showing off the title of the rules – ‘Never Mind The Billhooks!’. Just to give myself a bit of a challenge, I decided to paint the models ‘properly’ rather than my usual block paint and quick shade method. To start with, I cleaned up and primed the individual pieces, using a black primer for the base, grey for the horse and Plate mail for the figure.

The car park space bases!

The base was quite straight forward to finish. I simply gave it a dry brush with Vallejo Black grey, 70862 and then followed this with a lighter dry brush of Light grey 70990. It was then just a question of picking out the markings on the car park spot in off white 70820. I could have used yellow – there are two painted models on the Perry web site that I was using as a reference (copying….) – but I preferred the white markings.

The horses being painted

The horses were first painted or rather wet/dry brushed with Light grey 70990 and then Silver grey 70883 as the first coats. I wasn’t too worried if the priming coat of uniform grey was left in the deepest of the creases. The wet/dry brush is my best description of the technique that I used, The paint brush wasn’t loaded with paint but neither was it wiped off, as with a usual dry brush. I also made sure that the ‘high points’ on the model were well covered in paint. I then used the same technique to paint the horses with a coat of off white, but this time, using a drier brush to leave the shadows in the darker colour. The horses manes were painted in Black grey 70962 and the horse furniture in flat Red 70957. The decoration on the horse furniture was done using Brass 70801.

Completed horses on the bases

I then touched up the details on the horse, using Ivory 70918 for the hooves, Platemail for the bit and hooves, black for the eyes and I lightly dry brushed the mane and tail with a neutral grey to bring out the detail. I then carefully black lined the model to sharpen everything up. I really liked the stark appearance of the Perry’s painted model and so I followed this example. For this reason, I didn’t worry too much about highlighting or shading the red – I like the extreme contrast against the white horse!

Painting King Richard – highlighting and details to do next!

It was then onto King Richard. As mentioned, I primed him with army painter plate mail and then gave him a good coat of Dark Tone or Black ink. Once this was dry, I dry brushed him first in Plate mail and then in silver. At this stage I then started the slight conversion to one of the models and carefully snipped off the sword and then drilled the hand so that I could insert a standard. I also needed to very slightly bend the arm but this was done without a problem. It’s always a good idea to go gently and ease the model in the position that you need – by it’s very nature, the metal will flex if you are careful. The details on the models were then picked out. Red for the belt and leather wear, Flesh 70955 for the face, followed by a skin wash, and then highlighting with another coat of flesh and then light flesh 70928. The hair was Chocolate brown 70872 with a flat brown 70874 hightlight and then a wash of brown ink. The details on the sword were picked out in brass.

King Richard completed and on his horse!

The next challenge was to make the standard. It turned out to be simpler than I thought. I photo copied the standard for King Richard that comes in the Perry Miniatures Foot Knights set and used a Dymo electric printer to print the title. This was cut to size and stuck onto the flag, which in turn was cut out using a fresh scalpel blade. I then used watered down PVA to stick the flag onto a cut down spear and the job was done!

Never mind the Billhooks!

The standard King Richard…without a standard…

The finished model with the standard is for Andy and I have the original with the sword for my cabinet. Incidentally, I did make two standards – one was the Billhooks version and the other a normal Royal Standard – I think that the Billhooks version looks best on this model!

I am very excited about the release of the ‘Never mind The Billhooks’ rule set. It will come as a free full colour 24 page supplement with the May issue of Wargames Illustrated. I have now seen the draft rules, and they look great. I can only hope that other Wargamers have the same fun and enjoyment that we have had when they finally get their copies!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here unfortunately, we are unable to supply the metals:

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint number into the shop search bar;

‘Never mind the Bill Hooks’ will be available as a full colour supplement with the May edition of Wargames Illustrated. If you would like the current issue, click here:

Happy Modelling!

Cry Wolf! A workbench round up.

Deezee wolf – test shot.

It’s been two weeks since my last blog but I have been busy – it’s just that I haven’t actually finished anything for myself! I was somewhat diverted by a request from my Granddaughter, Emily. We were tickled pink when she phoned up ( she’s not quite seven yet!) to ask me for some help with her school project. She was learning about wolves and had to make a wolf enclosure – did I have a model of a wolf and could I help? Well, Arcane scenery has the DeeZee range of animals and we have a pack of Dire Wolves that would do nicely. As I had not painted one myself, I thought that I better do a test piece before Emily came over to paint her own version. So above is my first attempt at painting a wolf. I also prepared and primed the other 5 in the pack and then based two of them so that Emily could finish them off.

Emily’s wolves in their new enclosure.

It’s worth pointing out that DeeZee model are not toys and made of metal and not designed for children. However, even at 7, Emily is sensible enough to understand the difference between a model and a toy and will use them as such. When it came to painting the wolves I gave Emily my best brushes and we used ‘proper’ paint. My advise would be that if you would like children to take up the hobby, let them loose with the correct tools for the job and just take the time to explain how to use the tools safely. When it comes to painting, that means how to hold the brush, how to thin the paint and how to clean the brushes in between coats and so on. Mind you, I was told off for licking the brush! It’s a bad habit but the most effective way I know of keeping the point on the brush….

The completed wolf enclosure – the pink pipe cleaners are their food!

Once Emily had painted her two wolves, we made a start on the enclosure itself. It was made to Emily’s specifications using two shoe boxes. My job was to wield the hot glue gun and stick stuff together where directed- I would have let her have a go with the glue gun but Nanny said no! Emily did slap on the PVA glue where needed though! Of course, having access to my stash of scenery made the job a bit easier. We were able to line her two shoe boxes with some off cuts of scenic mats that I had and add some Arcane Scenery trees. We built a ‘den’ using some slate and the pond was just a painted piece of foam board. We used arcane scenery scatter to blend it all in. Emily helped herself to some of my Gamers grass tufts and some twigs and lichen and we had more or less finished. The project took most of Sunday but as ‘Storm Ciara’ was beginning to blow outside, it was a Sunday well spent.

Sabot bases under construction

As for my own projects, well, as I have said, I’ve been busy preparing stuff but have finished very little. I have completed some sabot bases for my War of the Roses command figures. I used the same techniques outlined in in my blog article ‘Painting War of The Roses Artillery’.

The completed command bases

Perrys Light Cavalry

I’ve also assembled and prepared 12 War of the Roses light cavalry. I assembled eight as mounted bowmen (to use as mounted Skirmishers) and the other four as ‘scurrers’ – I could combine these with four of my other heavy horse to make another unit. I’ve got as far as priming six of these light cavalry, but I’ll probably show these in a later blog.

Additional command figures

I’ve also assembled four more command figures – three of which will have standards. I don’t need any more commanders for my army; the extras will allow me to divide my force into two, to allow an extra player to play, if needs be.

Prussian Jaegers primed and ready for painting.

I have a Demo game to prepare for in March. It’s the Bingham Napoleonic days and as usual the NG13 gamers are putting on a display. I actually have enough troops for the demo but decided to add another six Jaeger to my Prussian force. I got as far as priming these before being distracted yet again.

Special project on the go!

It was my birthday last Thursday and I had asked for some additional Perry Miniatures to bulk out my War of The Roses force. I had also asked for the special ‘Richard III Commemorative figure’ that they make. Actually, I asked for two as I have an idea for converting one of them as a standard bearer for the new rules set ‘Never Mind the Billhooks’. So these models have found their way to the top of the painting list. Again, I’ll show the finished models with a bit more detail in a future blog, but as you can see, the horses are about done for now. So lots of modelling but nothing quite finished. That’s the way it seems to go in my hobby!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

To have a look at the full DeeZee range of Ice Age animals and cavemen, click here:

DEEZEE MINIATURES

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here:

WARLORD NAPOLEONOIC RANGE

Our range of Warlord Napoleonics can be seen here:

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint number or name into the shop search bar;

Happy modelling!

Painting War Of the Roses Artillery

My War of the Roses army is approaching completion. I now have most of the infantry that I am likely to need whilst playing our rules set ‘Never mind the Bill Hooks’. In fact I can actually muster two small opposing retinues if necessary. There are two gaps in the roster though; Light Cavalry and Artillery. I went for the easy option and started to paint an artillery piece. As usual, my manufacturer of choice is Perry Miniatures and as the rest of my army is made up of Perry Plastics it made sense to continue to use the same source. Of course, other manufacturers figures are available!

Artillery!

It was a straight forward task to file down the flash and casting lines on the pieces. Some of the Metal Perry castings can be troublesome in terms of mold lines and excess metal but this pack was well cast and not a problem. I then undercoated the gun in black primer and the crew in grey primer. To paint the wooden carriage of the gun, I followed the article for painting wood contained in the last issue of ‘Painting War #9 – Holy War’. On the face of it, it seems like a bit of a long winded way of producing a wooden effect but I think that it is well worth the effort and time and I am very pleased with the effect.

WOTR Artillery – first coat of Vallejo Chocolate brown 70872

You start by painting the wooden parts of the carriage in Vallejo Chocolate Brown using the normal painting technique and cover as much of the black undercoat as you can but where possible, leave the black metal barrel of the gun and other metal parts. Next you start to dry brush the carriage using Flat brown. This stage can be done with a fairly heavy dry brush and you will cover most of the Chocolate Brown.

Next heavy coat is flat brown 70984

Now use Flat Earth as your next dry brush coat. This time use a slightly lighter coat and less paint on the brush. You just want to catch the details and grain of the wood. This is followed with Orange Brown. Once again, this is a light dry brush and you are just picking up the highlights.

Added dry brush coats of Flat Earth 70983, Orange Vrown, 70981 and yelow ochre, 70913.

The final dry brush is done with Yellow Ochre. You need to be using a really dry brush and a light touch. I tend to focus just on the edges of the model. The magazine article suggests a further highlight using flesh as the top highlight. I decided that I was happy with the finish that I had and stopped there.

The finished gun. Black re painted – I need to go back over the wheel rims with steel.

I then went back over the barrel and ironware on the cannon with matt black to cover the over brushing that I had made whilst dry brushing. I also then gave the wheel rims a dry brush with gun metal to represent the paint chipping off these due to use. The gun is ready for action.

Gun crew block painted in their bal;ck and red livery.

Gun crew block painted in their black and red livery.

When it came to the crew, I decided on a straight forward red and black scheme for their livery and didn’t get to hung up on the accuracy of this. I just wanted them to match my ‘red faction’ of my retinue. I did consider painting the Gun Captain in a different colour as he would probably be independent of the Lords household, but in the event, went with with the easy solution.

‘sabot’ base under construction

Crew in position – you can see that I’ve painted the crew with quick shade.

On to basing. I created a base that would allow me to remove the crew individually as in the ‘Never mind the Bill Hooks’ rules, this is how hits on the gun and it’s effectiveness is measured. With each ‘hit’ on the gun, you remove a crew member. So once the crew were mounted on 20mm x 20mm MDF bases, I created ‘sabot spaces’ for them on a larger 80mm x 65mm base. See the picture for details. I used some spare thin strips of wood and MDF to make the frames and super glued them into place. This is a bit lazy, I like to use PVA for gluing wood but I was in a hurry to get the base done. I did pay a small penalty for my idleness. I managed to get super glue over my fingers and as a result, even though dry, I couldn’t use the touch unlock facility on my i-phone as the glue blotted out my finger print!

Base coated in texture paste – Vallejo Dark Earth 26219

Once the base framework was completed, I coated it in Vallejo Dark Earth texture paste and then followed my usual basing method.

WOTR gun completed!

This involves painting the base with my favourite coloured emulsion paint ‘Delhi Bazaar’ – Vallejo is too good to waste on bases! Once dry, it is a case of dry brushing with lighter mix and then adding some scatter and tufts. If you would like to know how to get pots of emulsion to match your Vallejo colours, have a look at my earlier blog here:

DONT JUST DO IT…B&Q IT!

So another unit is ready for my Army, next up, the light cavalry, although I suspect that they will take a bit more than a week to complete!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

Perry’s WOTR plastic range are here:

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint number into the shop search bar;

VALLEJO DARK EARTH TEXTURE

You can find the Vallejo texture paste here:

‘Never mind the Bill Hooks’ will be available as a full colour supplement with the April edition of Wargames Illustrated. If you would like the current issue, click here: