Whats On The Work Bench – April Round up

Well we’re halfway through May, so an April Round up is somewhat overdue! As with March though, there has been no real focus to what I have been doing other than to continue to work through the lead pile and also to complete anything that I have acquired. To be fair, that process is not quite as random as it sounds. I have a ‘program’ of ten hobby threads that I am following that give some continuity to my hobby and it is these that have shaped the projects passing across my workbench in April.

One of those threads is to paint all of the models in the DeeZee range. Above is DZ20, Young Bison, which I completed at the beginning of the month. There are 40 lines in the DeeZee range. I have personally painted about 30 of them, so I am gradually completing that little project.

Another thread is to paint all of the figures and Scenery that came with the magazine collection Battle Games in Middle Earth. There are 91 issues of the Magazine and by painting Haldir ( above) I have now reached issue 28!

Another long term project is to build a medieval village. I’m building it on the Sarissa bases module system so that it can grow as I complete each subject in what ever random sequence I choose. Andy Callan recently gave me a laser cut Stocks set, so I converted a ‘victim’ to go in them.

This gave me an ‘excuse’ to purchase the Footsore Welsh Minors – a set that I really liked when they were first released. I thought that they would look great tormenting the poor guy in the stocks!

The pictures above show the finished scene. At some point, it will form part of the Village green of my village!

Of course, I am still busy painting subjects for ‘Never Mind The Billhooks’ and having finished my Irish army, I’m slowly working on a Landsknecht contingent. I have 18 handgunners already painted, so next I’m working on 12 Zweihanders. The first six are complete, although I will add some grass tufts.

The last item is my Naval Collection, which of course incorporates, the forthcoming ‘Never Mind the Boathooks’ rules set. This latest addition to my Medieval fleet was kindly sent to me by George Antioch, who is based over in Canada. Although designed as a ‘Cog’, as it was fairly narrow in the beam, I thought that it would make an excellent Carrack and sister ship to my Great Ship ‘The Sun In Splendour’. So with a few modifications to George’s design, the ‘George’ is taking shape. I intend to write an article showing how I constructed and modified the ‘George’ in a future blog.

So that’s about it for April. May has been a bit quieter on the modelling front, although I have attended a fantastic event down in Bristol:

B.I.G Billhooks in Bristol

On top of that, I had a long weekend away visiting Blenheim Palace, Shakespeare’s Stratford on Avon and Kenilworth castle! So enough of a history hit to inspire me to get back to the workbench and get some more done!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop.

ARCANE SCENERY

We also have a category devoted to Never Mind the Bill Hooks:

NEVER MIND THE BILL HOOKS!

To see our range of Naval accessories, click here:

NAVAL ACCESSORIES

To see the full range of DeeZee animals, click here:

DEEZEE BEASTS

You can se the superb Footsore Welsh range here:

FOOTSORE EARLY WELSH

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 PAINTS

Happy Modelling!

Whats on the work bench 30th March 2023

Having completed my Irish Army, I dont really have a ‘big’ project on the go at the moment, except a secret one that I’ll show you at the end of this entry….

I’ve been working on a number of 1/48th scale subjects. These include an Airfix Snatch Landrover, a SMER 1/48th scale Swordfish, and a couple of Blitzkrieg models, The Firefly and an AEC armoured car. The Firefly is pretty much done, although I will be adding some extra stowage. Here’s a couple of pictures of the Firefly.

The Blitzkrieg Firefly – I think that I will add some stowage
The Firefly with the Sherman V

In between writing this blog and publishing it, I actually finished the extra stowage as well as the AEC armoured car. I was pleased with the AEC car. Even though it is resin, a few extras, stowage, wing mirrors, the drivers screen and a commander have brought it to life. The drivers screen was added by simply cutting an old blister pack down to get the clear plastic!

Firefly with extra stowage
1/48th AEC armoured car from Blitzkrieg Miniatures

As far as my WOTR collection goes, I have already painted the Richard III figure that was available at Hammerhead 2023. The figure is a bit fat in the face for Richard, but he will make a nice addition to my collection and he’s in the cabinet rather than the leadpile!

I’m also working on a small vignette. Andy Callan gave me a set of stocks for my medieval village that is progressing at glacial speed. It seemed a shame not to have a subject locked up in them so I’ve converted a Wargames Factory Celt to fit. There’s a bit more work to do, as you can see.

If you are happy and you know it clap your hands…..

So on to the secret project! Andy Callan has been working on another spin off of Never Mind The Bill Hooks. This time it is Bill Hooks Fantasia or Never Mind the Warlocks – a fantasy rules set using the basic Bill Hooks game engine. Andy had written a fantasy version some time ago for his Grand kids to play. However, Bill Hooks had moved on and the rules never made it to the table. There has been a lot of back and forth between Andy and some keen Bill Hooks players as the new rules were added.

A company of Men face off against a mob of Orcs!

So it was time to put the rules to the test. I’m not going to go into specifics but I’m happy to report that we had an excellent game, full of cinematic cliff hangers. The Riders of Rohan pulled of a spectacular charge, repulsing a horde of angry goblins. Tony the Troll went walkabout in the woods, although we did test his effectiveness in combat. The wizard was a bit of a damp squib and the heroic infantry did what heroic infantry are supposed to do against the baddies!

Riders of Rohan prepare to charge!
Orcs can form a pike block!
Tony the troll does battle!
Riders of Rohan breakthough and rout the ‘baddies’ A certain wizard looks on helplessly!

With the first play test out of the way and some re-assessment of the troop types and the new introductions, we are ready to go again. The next stage is to widen the player participation and see how the new mechanics will work. Watch this space!

the ‘seige’ Uruk Hai completed

So this has inspired me to get on with my LOTR painting project. I am now on issue 27 of the magazine and this came with a sprue of ‘seige Uruk Hai’. I actually have tackled two sprues as another sprue was given away later in the series. So another 10 Uruk Hai are added to my force!

Also on the wargaming front, we played another epic game of Never Mind the Boat Hooks. There an excellent battle report on the ‘Bill Hooks’ facebook page, written by Austen Kime, chief chronicler and co commander.

NEVER MIND THE BILL HOOKS FACEBOOK PAGE

The two fleets close – there is going to be a heck of a battle!
Arrow storms and shooting as the final manouvers are completed!

So a busy month, despite no real focus and my collection is growing nicely!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – our web site will have much of what you need to finish your models! Click here to see our shop.

ARCANE SCENERY

Happy Modelling!

Fire Forge Folk Rabble

I had wanted to add a couple of units of peasants to my ‘Never Mind The Bill Hooks’ army for some time. I thought that they would come in useful as levy troops and also I had a vague idea for a scenario involving an attack on a village where the villagers rise up and fight back.

The Fire forge Northern Folk Rabble looked as though they would do the job although I had a couple of misgivings. First of all they are not really medieval peasants ( not that I am any sort of expert in Medieval peasant dress) and secondly, they are a bit on the ‘chunky’ side. That all said, they certainly looked like an angry mob of peasants armed with agricultural implements rather than swords etc. I decided to ignore my concerns and bought a box.

A sprue from the set – there are three in a box.

I guess it’s worth pointing out that the figures have clearly been designed on a computer as some of the detail is a bit coarse. But that’s the last of my gripes. You get 18 figures on three sprues. There are 12 men and 6 women with a huge variety of ‘weapons’ and a choice of 15 different heads. The flail is particularly useful if you are intending to build a Hussite army.

The ‘Flail Man’ – ideal for a Hussite army!

I started by putting six figures together – there is just a bit of a mould line to scrape off, otherwise, the figures are straight forward enough to assemble. The arms holding the larger two handed implements are a bit tricky to put together and some problems were encountered in getting them to ‘sit’ correctly. I think the issue was me trying to pose them how I wanted them, rather than getting the best fit. If you use plenty of glue (polystyrene, not super glue!), a bit of patience, you will get a fairly good fit. The other thing that I missed on the first figure that I made is that the small wiggly bit at the top right of the sprue is actually part of one of the figures’ hood – the other three pieces below, being pony tails for the women. Incidentally. it was apparently not the done thing for medieval folk, particularly women, to go without some sort of head covering. However, when you are angry enough to rebel against your Lord, you might just forget to put your hat on….

The first six peasants completed.

Having completed one sprue, I moved onto the next one and was pleased with how easy it was to get plenty of variety in the figures. It was also apparent that I was going to have plenty of spare bits for my bits box! I decided not to use the flaming torches, I just wanted my villagers to be armed with sharp objects! The torches will be useful should I decide to build a bonfire party!

The revolt is growing!

When it came to painting, I just went through my different browns and greens for the men and used a few brighter colours for the ladies! I used a mixture of inks for shading and then re highlighted with the original colours where I thought it necessary. I had intended to make up the shortage in numbers for the final unit by mixing in some Perry’s but decided that this didn’t look right – the difference in sculpt style and size didn’t work for me. So I bought another box, having come up with a cunning plan to use the extra figures.

I decided that I would make two units of 12 peasants and one unit of skirmishing archers ( making 30 figures). I would then make a leader – ‘Jack Wood’ with his standard bearer, ‘Jill’ leaving just 4 spare figures. As it was, the two spare women were made up as working peasants for my village (under construction). Another spare was donated to my Granddaughter for a project that she was working on, leaving me one spare man who will end up in the fields at Little Bingham!

The archers as a skirmishing unit.
Two units of 12 angry peasants!
My Granddaughter Emily’s Sarrissa Caravan Diorama. Emily is aged 9!

To make the leader, Jack Wood stand out, I decided to give him a big dog from the DeeZee range. I also changed his bill hook to a big sword that I had in the spares box from making up the Perry Foot knights. It’s actually a two handed sword but it looks about right in Jacks big hands! I thought that a trouble maker like Jack would be an ex soldier! To make Jill’s standard, I simply stuck two of the larger handles from the longer implements together and trimmed them into shape.

The peasant commander ‘Jack Wood’ and ‘Jill’ his standard bearer – the dog is called Cuddles….

The banner was based loosely on a Wheafsheaf design (inspired by a pub in our village) and hand painted on paper. I keep practicing my free hand and whilst I wont be winning any competitions with it, it does save on buying decals! I painted the dog as a Rottweiler- I doubt that the breed existed in the middle ages but he conveys the idea that you would be a bit cautious about petting him! The dogs chain was from my bits box – originally an anchor chain for a boat. I also gave ‘Jack’ a wrapped bow from the Perry Light infantry set and Jill has an arrow bag from the same set. The idea was to convey that they are a team!

I’ve obviously taken a few liberties from an historical point of view. The whole project is a figment of my imagination, based on an imaginary uprising in the Village of Little Bingham! I now have a decent ‘ward’ of Levy or angry peasants for my ‘Bill Hooks’ collection, I just need to get them into battle!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop.

ARCANE SCENERY

You can see the range of miniatures, including the Fire Forge Folk Rabble, that we think are suitable to for the Wars of the Roses, along with the rest of our Never Mind The Bill Hooks range here:

NEVER MIND THE BILL HOOKS!

To see the full range of DeeZee animals, click here:

DEEZEE BEASTS

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 PAINTS

You can find Gamers grass here:

GAMERS GRASS

If you need Milliput or other fillers, click here:

FILLERS

Happy Modelling!

A Medieval Carriage

Now that I am comfortably moved into my new hobby room, my modelling output is beginning to outstrip my ability to write about it! I have at least four projects that are either in progress or completed and in the cabinet.

The completed carriage

One such project is my medieval carriage. As you can see, it is all but finished and is just awaiting the driver and his assistant – you will see why at the end of the blog! The model is scratch built using a set of ‘plans’ from Wargames Illustrated #395. I use the term plans in a very loose sense. The originals were sparse enough and designed for 15mm figures. In theory, it should have been easy enough to scale up the drawings to 28mm scale. In practice, it just did n’t work – the resulting model was far too big and even with my eventual reductions, I still have the impression that my model is over sized! Ah well, it looks impressive and is a nice addition to my collection. I also made another slight error, in that I cut the pieces from 60/000 plasticard – 40/000 would have been better and easier on my scapel but the resulting model is quite sturdy!

Using the plans as a guide, I cut out the main parts for the carriage using 60/000 plasticard.
I then started to assemble the carriage – note that I switched to thinner plasticard to make the sides with the windows.
The rear of the carriage assembled. Note that by now, I am measuring pieces as I go along – there is no plan as such!
The centre section fitted and the first planks added.

I used some soft wood strip to add the planking to the sides of the carriage. I then added the wheels and axles etc using some spare parts from a Trent Miniatures wagon that I had in the spares box. I know that when I read other peoples modelling projects, I get very frustrated when they say ‘I found this bit in my spares box’ and here I am doing the same thing. The truth is that the more scratch building that you do, the more bits and pieces that you acquire. I could have scratch built these bits but it would have taken a long time for me so I went for the easiest option!

Progress so for Sir Thomas Hawkwood also in painting progress!

The next part of the assembly was to add the roof. Again, I measured this against the model and cut it out of 10/000 plasticard. I used the existing wall pieces to make ‘formers’ to glue and bend the roof so that it sat nicely on the model.

Roof added and Trent miniatures Draft horses in position.
I have also added the drivers seat and foot rest.
All the planking is now added and the roof reinforced to improve the shape.

With the main assembly completed, I just need to sand down any obvious errors and start the paint job.

Before fixing the roof in place, I had primed the interior with matt black – I could have added some detail but was too lazy it’s not likely that it will be seen anyway…. I then roughly masked the windows and primed the wagon in Army painter leather brown.

After priming, the base coat of Burnt red was applied.

A sponge was used to apply the top coats of red

The next part of the process was to highlight/texture the base coat using various lighter shades of red. Dont ask me why, but I decided to use a sponge to apply the paint. I think that it looks different!

The wood work on the wagon was painted black.

I then painted the wood work on the upper wagon in black. The underside and rest of the woodwork was painted to look like wood, with the iron work either black or for the wheel rims, gun metal.

The main construction was now finished. I just needed to paint the horses and base the model. I followed my usual technique for painting the horse – I’ve covered this many times in previous blogs. The same goes for the base. I used one of the Sarissa terrain tiles, as my intention is to construct a full length road for my table, with the option of ‘dropping’ the carriage into it as required. I also like non uniform edges to the base, although my gaming mates are not so keen! I’ve also added some shields with ‘Lord Callans’ livery painted on. My freehand painting is, shall we say a work in progress! I have the impression that my white lion looks a bit like a white monkey…..Never mind, I just need to keep practicing and should I get any better, the shields are only blu tacked in place for the time being!

The last task is to make the driver and the guard. I was going to use the figures from the Footsore range but they were a tad small, or rather, my carriage is a tad big. So I set about converting some figures. They are yet to be finished. For now, here’s how to turn an Aztec into a medieval car driver – well nearly!

Some major surgery going on here!

Once I get busy with the green stuff, I’ll post the final pictures!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop.

ARCANE SCENERY

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 PAINTS

You can find Sarissa Terrain tiles in this category:

SARISSA ACCESSORIES

You can find Gamers grass here:

GAMERS GRASS

If you need Milliput or other fillers, click here:

FILLERS

You can find plasticard here:

PLASTICARD

Happy Modelling!

More DeeZee painted models

I have said that I would like to paint all of the DeeZee range for my own collection. I do have painted examples of all of the range for commercial use but some of them are showing their age and I didn’t paint them! I’m in no rush with this project but it does make a nice change from the military stuff that I am working on.

DEEZEE 33 White Rhino first coat!

The next model on my bench was the White Rhino, DZ33, a resin model. A bit of research shows that White rhino’s can be either a very pale grey or a light sand colour. I presume that the sandy ones are simply covered in dust and earth, although it does seem that the Southern Rhinos tend to be the Light Brown ones and the Northern Rhinos tend to be Light Grey. Just to add to my confusion, it turns out that White rhinos are so called because according to google:

‘Why is the white rhino not white?

Image result

The story has a few variations but it basically states that the early Dutch settlers referred to this rhino as having a “wijde lip” or wide lip. The English mistook the word “wijde” (meaning wide) for “white” and so assumed that they were being called white rhinos by the Dutch.’

If you google images of the white rhino, you will certainly get plenty of variation in colour. I decided to go for the Light Brown finish and after washing and priming the model painted it with Vallejo Light Brown. As you can see from the picture above, I need a few light coats to cover the model.

I then proceeded to add Iraqi Sand 70819 to the light brown and after a number of dry brushes , I worked up to pure Iraqi Sand. It really was that simple. I then gave the model a wash with very thinned soft tone ink and added a final coat of Iraqi Sand with white added. I then based the rhino and added plenty of Beige and dry tufts and some long yellow grass. Job done!

While I was in the mood for painting animals, I decided to paint DZ pack 16, Crocodiles. There are three crocs in a pack and I decided to do all three and base them as a group. The models are actually identical so to get a bit od variation, I carefully bent the tails of two of the crocs to make them look a bit different. So long as you are careful when you do this, there is sufficient ‘give’ in the metal to make this a straight forward process.

I painted them using similar colours to those that I used when painting the DeeZee Giant crocodile. The only slight difference was that I used Army Painter bone to prime them and used the same colour for the belly. The basing process was also similar. I used milliput and some pebbles to make the ground work and then used clingfilm to protect the models as I pushed the into place to get the indentations. I could them remove the Crocs and paint the base without them being in the way. Here is the link to my earlier blog with details of how I decided to paint the Giant Crocodile along with details of the colours used:

CROCODILE ROCK – PAINTING THE DEEZEE GIANT CROCODILE

The finished Crocodiles in their new home!

I painted the base as per my usual ‘recipe’ using the emulsion colour ‘Dehli Bazaar’, which is my favbourite mud colour, added a dark tone ink wash for some depth and then added a variety of Gamers grass tufts, scatter and some spare jungle plants from my scenery stash. Once the crocs were added back onto the base. I used Vallejo water effects to finish things off.

DeeZee Crocodiles waiting for their dinner!

The final shots ready to add to the listing on my shop.

So that’s another pack added to my collection. Back to painting War of the Roses figures for now!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop.

ARCANE SCENERY

To see the full range of DeeZee animals, click here:

DEEZEE BEASTS

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 PAINTS

To find water effects and other textures, click here:

VALLEJO MEDIUMS AND TEXTURES

You can find Gamers grass here:

GAMERS GRASS

If you need Milliput or other fillers, click here:

FILLERS

Happy Modelling!

More Partizan Personalities!

Having attended ‘The Other Partizan’ at Newark back at the beginning of October, I picked up the latest free personality figure, The Empress Matilda. Rather than putting the model into the lead pile , Matilda was promoted to the front of the painting queue! Whilst I was painting one figure, I thought that I might as well add another in from the lead pile. In this case, it was Rosa Luxemburg, the German communist revolutionary, otherwise known as ‘Red Rosa’.

Matilda on the left, Red Rosa on the right….possibly the only time she has been there….

Once the figures were cleaned up – not that they needed much in the way of cleaning – They were temporarily based and primed in grey.

I usually copy the pictures on the Partizan program but I wanted to paint Matilda differently and I didn’t have a reference picture for Rosa. (Although her nick name gave me a clue).

I went for a Yellow and purple scheme for Matilda with some gold edging to the cloak. The partizan model looks a bit angry (their own description), so I tried to give her a softer expression.

I gave Red Rosa a nice red dress and attempted to paint the hat as a Straw hat. I’m not sure that I actually achieved the effect that I wanted but it will pass for a first attempt.

The two finished models

I based the models as normal – perhaps Rosa would have been better on a paved base but there would have been a good deal of cutting and filing to get her to stand correctly and I should have thought about it before I painted her! I’m quite happy with the result and another two figures come off of the lead pile and go into the cabinet.

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – our web site will have much of what you need to finish your models! Click here to see our shop.

ARCANE SCENERY

Happy Modelling!

Partizan Personalities

My current collection of Painted minaitures from the Partizan Shows

No, I’m not going to discuss Richard or Laurence, the two organisers of the wonderful Partizan shows, or for that matter, the many ‘glitterati’ of the wargaming world that attend the show! No, my interest is in the free figures that are handed out as part of the entrance fee. In the past, I would accept these figures gratefully and they would simply end up in a box as part of my lead pile. However, since the lockdown, my ambition has been to reduce my lead pile and to paint whatever I buy or acquire at shows. My rule now is that I wont buy anything from a show unless I have painted the things that I bought the last time I attended that same show a year ago. That gives me a year to paint what I buy!

Edith Clavell

So far, I have actually kept to my promise, more or less….so when the first Partizan show opened after COVID in October 2021 I actually painted the free miniature within a week. The miniature was of the nurse, Edith Cavell who served in WW1.

Stephen le Blois

At the next Partizan in May of this year, the miniature was King Stephen. Once again, I painted him fairly quickly after the show. So now I had two painted miniatures from Partizan – Oooooo! the start of a collection! As it turned out, I remembered that I had a third figure, Martin Schwartz, from the Battle of Stokes Field. He was actually part of my War of the Roses army that I was using for Never Mind The Bill Hooks! I had painted him sometime ago.

Martin Schwartz – painted some years ago!

That find sent me scurrying out to the shed to see what else I had squirreled away! I also did some research on the web to remind myself of what figures were actually given out. I was surprised that there are actually 45 according the the lost mini’s web page. You can see them here:

PARTIZAN – LOST MINIS WEB PAGE

A quick dive into the lead pile to find past freebies!

So after a quick search through the pile of shame I found that I had 12 miniatures from past shows. It seems that the earliest figure that I had was number 26 King Edward VIII. I suspect that I have picked up other earlier figures but not kept them or they are hidden deep into the lead pile. I certainly wont have had them all but I thought it would be fun to paint what I have.

I started with figure Number 41 ‘Dulce et decorum est…’ It’s a lovely sculpt and very straight forward to paint. It also goes nicely with the Edith Clavell figure.

I then decided to paint the earliest models that I had, Edward and Mrs Simpson, numbers 26 and 27 respectively. Which brings my ‘collection’ up to six painted models! I’ll work through the others as a break from what ever else is on the workbench. As a collection, they will look nice in the cabinet and they chart a bit of my own gaming history through my visits to Partizan as a Customer, Trade Exhibitor and most recently, Games Demonstrator! I wont be actively seeking out the missing models from my collection, although I would like to get hold of the Lambert Simnel model for my War of The Roses army, and for old times sake, I would quite like to get hold of figure number two, Duncan the publisher.

Partizan is without doubt, my favourite wargames show, more so since it has moved to its new venue at the Newark Show Ground. I am very much looking forward to attending ‘The Other Partizan’ on Sunday 9th October, where I will be assisting with a Participation/Demo game of the latest version of ‘Never Mind The Bill Hooks’ or ‘Bill Hooks Delux’ as it will be known. With Andy Callan and his brother Ian, we will be showing off the rules for Celtic conflict in the WOTR era with a fictional prequel to the Battle of Stokes fleld set in Ireland! If you are at the show, please come and say hello!

I am of course also looking forward to getting the next figure in the collection!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop.

ARCANE SCENERY

To find out more about the Partizan show tickets prices and who will be there, click here:

PARTIZAN SHOW NEWARK

Happy Modelling!

Detailing My Great Ship

I’m afraid that my commitment to to producing a weekly blog has been somewhat lacking in recent months. Fortunately, my modelling output has continued at my usual steady rate and I continue to make progress on the various projects on my workbench.

I have been updating my model great ship, which I have yet to find a suitable name for. It is based on Henry Vths Gracedieu but much reduced in scale so that it fits onto a gaming table. I have added some detail to the Forecastle and also a figure head. The figure head is a roaring lion and is made from one of the DeeZee models , DZ23 Lion attacking. A bit of a waste, in that I only used the head, cutting it off from the body and using greenstuff to blend it into the prow of the model. I think that it looks nice though! I have also added a couple of anchors to the bow. They are from the Expo range that we carry. I had agonised about how I would drill through the hull and keep the holes looking tidy. I solved the problem by using two eyelets from a hole punch set that I had. I’m quite pleased with the result.

Anchor now added – note eyelet!

I also decided to add some shields to the stern castle. I used the large Heater shields from Footsore Miniatures and decorated them using some very old Games Workshop transfers that I had found in my bits box. I’ve also painted a few free hand. The Percy Hotspur shield is a case in point. It’s a bit rough when viewed close up but looks OK from a distance! Incidentally, the coats of arms that I have used are either fictional or wrong for the time period. It’s not a problem for me, I just want something that is representational that looks nice on the wargames table. At my age, I’m not going to get too hung up on making a museum quality accurate scale model of something that didn’t actually exist anyway.

I have also made and painted a few more fighting crew for the ship. I now have another 12 archers completed. Again, I have been pretty easy going with the livery and have gone for a mixture of liveries rather than one specific type. As Gracedieu was built in the latter part of the Hundred Years war, rather than the Wars of The Roses, I have used the Perry’s Agincourt set for the retinue. That is also my excuse for not being consistent with the livery!

A few more archers added to the crew – just 8 more to add.

The Great ship is more or less complete now. I will add another 8 archers to the crew, giving her a compliment of 24 archers and 18 Men at arms. This will make the great ship a formidable opponent when playing ‘Boat Hooks’ – that is until my opponent plays the special event card that will make her run aground! I’ll also add another 12 shields on the stern castle to finish the decoration there. I am toying with adding some removeable rigging, for display purposes, made from wire but I am in no rush to do so!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop.

ARCANE SCENERY

We also have a category devoted to Never Mind the Bill Hooks:

NEVER MIND THE BILL HOOKS!

To see our range of Naval accessories, click here:

NAVAL ACCESSORIES

You can see the DeeZee range of animals ion the link below. As well as lovely models in their own right, they can be useful for figureheads, statues and of course, conversions.

DEEZEE MINIATURES

To find the large heater shields, click here:

HEATER SHIELDS

We have the eye punch on offer:

HOLE AND EYELET PUNCH

To see our range of glues, click here:

ADHESIVES AND GLUES

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 PAINTS

Happy Modelling!

Half Way There!

We have just passed half way through the year, with June already disappearing into the distance. I’m about to go away on a fortnights holiday. Like many people, I haven’t been able to get away for three years now and it’s been even longer since I’ve had more than a week away. So it’s a good time to press the reset button and take a long break from everything- business and hobby.

Just before I jet off to a cooler climate (Mexico isn’t quite as warm as the UK at the moment!), I thought that I would do a quick round up of some of the projects that I have been working on and give a ‘halfway score’ on just how much I have painted so far this year. So, in no particular order here are some of the models that I have completed recently that haven’t made the blog.

My Flag ship, or ‘great ship’ for ‘Never Mind the Boat Hooks’.

The biggest project that I have been working on is a scratch built Great ship, based roughly on King Henry Vths Gracedieu. Quite why I haven’t written about this project escapes me. I think that for a few weeks it just totally absorbed my attention. I was too busy modelling and researching to write the blog! Here’s a few pictures of her under construction and I will do an article with a bit more detail in the future.

The great ship was built for a demo game of ‘Boat Hooks’ at Partizan in Newark. Here is a picture of just some of the action.

Never Mind The Boat Hooks demo game at Partizan

Talking of Partizan, I picked up the free miniature of Stephen Le Blois and he has been painted and now joins my collection of these miniatures. I dont have all of the Partizan figures but I have resolved now that when ever I pick one of the show figures up, I will get it painted rather than chucking it into the lead pile!

Stephen Le Blois – Partizan 2022 free figure.

Continuing with the Partizan theme, I committed to ensuring that what ever I buy at a wargames show, I will paint it before the next show. I have just about stuck to my commitment by finishing a nice Perry Miniature wicker wagon that I had bought back in Octobers Partizan 2. I am building a nice collection of the Perry Wagons and I have a reasonable baggage train now.

Perry Minatures Wicker Wagon

As reported in my previous blog, I’ve also now completed my Irish Kern that were also bought at Partizan. This almost completes my Irish Army for now.

Changing the subject, I have also managed to make a bit of progress with my LOTR project. I am just about to finish basing twelve orcs from issue 24 of the Magazine.

I must confess that I didn’t enjoy painting these figures. The molding of detail is a bit ‘soft’ to say the least but thanks to a good wash with Army painter strong tone ink, they look OK!

My gaming has been curtailed just recently. I have been busy with family and social events as have my gaming buddies, Pete and Andy, so the opportunity to meet has been limited. Wargaming tends to be a winter activity! However, one game that we did play caught my imagination. It was a refight of Islandawanda. The troops are actually made from Hair Curlers by Andy Callan! I dont think that I will be going down that route but I am always impressed by such ingenuity! The game was good fun as well!

Well that is just a flavour of some of the projects that have gone across my work bench. I forgot to mention that as well as building the great ship, I made and painted the crew – another 20 or so figures. Which brings me to my total for the year so far:

152 Infantry figures;

8 Personalities

5 Medieval ships

1 Bren carrier

1 Deezee Elasmotherium

1 cart and horse

Lets hope that the rest of the year is as productive once I have re charged my batteries!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop but remember that I am away until the end of July!

ARCANE SCENERY

We also have a category devoted to Never Mind the Bill Hooks:

NEVER MIND THE BILL HOOKS!

To see our range of Naval accessories, click here:

NAVAL ACCESSORIES

To see our range of glues, click here:

ADHESIVES AND GLUES

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 PAINTS

Happy Modelling!

Sarissa Precision Medieval Cog

You may have seen a number of blog posts and post to the Bill Hooks Facebook group regarding our new venture ‘Never Mind the Boat Hooks’, a set of wargames rules based on Medieval naval warfare. Many of the boats that we are using are models made from the Sarissa Precision medieval Cog. My ‘fleet’ currently includes two, so I thought that it would be useful to give a brief review of building the kit and show readers some of the modifications.

One of our early play tests – the sarissa precision cog The ‘White Hart’ has run around in the top of the picture!

First of all, a couple of disclaimers. The kit is a representation of a typical medieval cog rather than a precise scale model. It’s a very good representation and designed for 28mm wargames figures, so it is very practical and robust for table top use. If you are looking for a more accurate model there are some very nice ones out there – the Zvezda Cog in plastic, for example. However, you will find that they are far more expensive and less robust or practical when it comes to gaming. That said, from what I have read in the limited research that I have done, there are no plans based on actual designs that survive. Most of what we know is based on contemporary pictures and descriptions rather than actual plans. There are a few surviving ships that have been recovered but I think that it’s fair to say that our knowledge is limited.

The Sarissa cog fully assembled and rigged

The Sarissa Cog comes with full building instructions and I recommend that you read them first and familiarise yourself with the pieces before you start to build the model. I found that the model went together very well and in some places the pieces were such a snug fit, glueing wasn’t required! However, to be on the safe side you should assemble with glue. I used Expo thick Cyanoacrylic super glue. A good white PVA would also be suitable but I was impatient and the thicker super glue glue gave me sufficient working time. A quick blast with an accelerant made things even faster, once I was happy that the pieces were in place.

Note that the ribs with the ‘eye’s in the top fit to the rear of the boat!

A word of caution when building. It is worth checking and then double checking that the ‘ribs’ that will support the grey board sides are assembled in the correct sequence and that you are clear as to which ones are on the stern end of the boat and which ones fit to the front or bow. The same goes when you fit the deck – ensure that you are clear which is the bow and which is the stern! Otherwise, I found the assembly very straight forward. A bit of patience and care is required when fitting the greyboard sides. This is where I found that super glue was better than PVA due to the fast grab and set time.

The deck and stern castle deck in place. Note the winch goes to the front of the boat.

I assembled the mast but did not glue it in place as I intended to replace it with a ‘fighting top’ for my archers. The mast is snug enough to slide in and out as required.

The completed Cog – original mast is just in place temporarily.

Full rigging instructions are included but I decided that the rigging would restrict access to the deck and get in the way when gaming so I went for a simpler solution. I made a replacement mast with a fighting top from a piece of 10mm dowel. You can pick this up from your local hardware store for about £3.00 for a 3 metre length so you will have plenty spare! Using a saw I cut a slot in the bottom of the new mast so that it would fit into the existing mast hole. Next, I needed to make a fighting top.

I’ve used two different methods of making a fighting top. I have a square one for the ‘White Hart’ ( see above) and I have a round one for the ‘White Lion’ – see below.

New mast and Fighting top added

Both of these fighting tops are made using 40mm bases ( round or square as you prefer). I’ve then made the sides with coffee stirrers cut to size and attached to the bases.

New fighting top and spar

If you look at the top picture you can see that there are some very simple ways of making a fighting top – look carefully and you might just identify a certain fast food outlets’ sauce container!

With the new mast and fighting top completed, my Cog was ready for gaming. However, I wanted to use the original mast with a sail for display purposes. To make the sail, I simply cut a piece of old sheet to size. I then asked for some help from my next door neighbor, Carole, who is an expert with a sewing machine to run some panels into the sail. To get the design of the lion onto the sail, I printed off a picture from the internet and taped the sail over the picture onto my patio window! I could then trace the design onto the flag.

The Sail ready for finishing

As you can see, I then placed the sail over a balloon and liberally coated it in PVA. Once dry, it was easy to peel the sail off of the balloon and it would now keep it’s shape with a bit of ‘belly’ in it!

The sail receiving it’s coating of PVA!

It was then just a case of carefully painting the sail. I used standard Vallejo paints but I ensued that each coat/colour was very dry before completing the next one.

The ‘White Lion’ with its sail !

The anchor that you can see was from Expo – we usually have these in stock, as well as the chain, although as I write this I am waiting for more stock as I have used them all for my projects!

So my cog is ready to take to the table. I will publish a follow up blog, where I will detail how I have painted the model – although if you have followed my blog, you will be aware of my preferred method of painting to simulate wood. If you are able to attend Partizan in Newark on May 22nd, I will be there with Andy Callan and we will be running a game of ‘Never Mind The Boat Hooks’ – you are welcome to come and join in and if you have any questions regarding the construction of the boats, I will be pleased to answer them.

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – remember that our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop:

ARCANE SCENERY

If you would like to purchase the Sarissa Precision Cog you can see it here:

MEDIEVAL COG SAILING SHIP

We also have a category devoted to Never Mind the Bill Hooks:

NEVER MIND THE BILL HOOKS!

To see our range of Naval accessories, click here:

NAVAL ACCESSORIES

To see our range of glues, click here:

ADHESIVES AND GLUES

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 PAINTS

Happy Modelling!

The Death of Nelson

Whilst I am still very much involved with producing my own Medieval Naval force, It’s good to have a break in between projects. For me, this involves painting something from the ‘Lead pile’. Regular readers will know that I am somewhat obsessed with reducing the number of unpainted figures in the ‘heap’ and the one minor benefit of the recent lock downs has been that I have made some progress.

The Death of Nelson – he certainly doesn’t look well….

So whilst I was in a nautical mood, I decided to have a go at painting a small diorama that I had acquired years ago. It is the Moments in Miniature model of the Death of Nelson issued by Wargames Illustrated Magazine. It’s a lovely piece, well sculpted and includes a nice resin base. A deep dive into my back issues of Wargames Illustrated and I found the original article that accompanied the release of this piece. I simply copied the pictures that accompanied the article. Well, up to a point. The article was by the master painter, Matt Parkes and showed how to paint the model as though it was illuminated by yellow lantern light. That was too fancy for me. I just wanted to paint the piece for my cabinet!

I’m fairly pleased with the result, although I have received a number of comments regarding how ill Nelson looks. I guess the clue is in the name. Poor Nelson is not going to recover from his wounds!

Men of Gondor!

I have also been steadily working through the Battlegames in Middle Earth magazine figures and I have now reached issue 23, having completed the Men of Gondor and Gimli, the Dwarf.

Gimli

Which brings me back to the lead pile. I have decided that my lead pile consists of three categories of models.

  1. Models that I have acquired from friends who didn’t want them or through the business. They might come in useful one day but I had no real reason for having them other than I didn’t want to throw them away and I was too greedy/polite to refuse them.
  2. Models that are just excess to requirements. You know, you buy a box of 60 Infantry and only use 24 of them for a particular project and the rest go onto the pile.
  3. Models that I really liked and wanted to paint but didn’t fit into the particular project that I was working on at the time. Perhaps one day I would sit down and paint them.
The Fellowship of the Ring is gradually taking shape!

Well, my focus now is on Category three. I’m not going to worry about category one any more, other than to sort them and either get rid of them or put them into deep storage. As for category two, it’s just an inevitable part of the hobby. You will always have spares and bits. They are now sorted by category and if I need a type of figure for a project, I’ll check my stash before I buy but I’m not going to worry about painting these until I need them.

So, Category three will get my attention. That is in between the painting and modelling that I need to do to complete my latest project. And when it comes to my latest project, I have resolved only to buy what I need and can paint in a reasonable time scale. In other words rather than buy a whole army that then sits there whilst I summon up the energy to get on with it, I’m just buying one or two units at a time and painting them before buying anything else.

The fleet grows!

Meanwhile, as you can see, my Medieval fleet is still growing, I’m going to add at least one more cog and some smaller row boats for support.

We need a bigger boat!

Which reminds me, I might just scratch build a great ship to lead my fleet in action…

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – remember that our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop:

ARCANE SCENERY

Happy Modelling!

Naval Gazing!

It’s almost a month since my last blog and my attention has been focused on a new project. My gaming buddy and ace rules writer Andy Callan has come up with a new variation of ‘Never Mind The Bill Hooks’ – ‘Never mind the Boat Hooks’. The game is based on Naval warfare in the middle ages and inspired somewhat by the Battle of Sulys that took place in 1340. Although this pre-dates the Wars of the Roses by some 100 years and in fact was part of the 100 years war, this type of Naval warfare continued for some time into the next century.

Grace Dieu – the For castle is 52 feet high!

Henry V’s flag ship, Grace Dieu, launched in 1418, although one of the largest ships of her time, carried only 3 cannon and her design was primarily to allow the English to over come the formidable fleet of Genoa by providing a high platform for the archers to shoot down on the lower Carracks used by the Genoese. Towards the end of the 15th century, gun powder based technology began to become the prime armament but even Henry VIII’s flag ship, the Mary Rose, launched in 1511, still carried a number of archers as the secondary armament to the 78 – 91 guns on board. You can see from the picture that the high Forecastle and Stern Castle would facilitate fire down onto the enemy ships and the netting over the main deck ( which may have contributed to so many casualties when the ship foundered) was there to prevent boarding actions by the enemy.

The Mary Rose – Note Galleys in the background

So for a period in the late middle ages, the primary method of naval warfare was to grapple with the enemy ships and board them with a view to putting the enemy to the sword! In effect, a land battle fought on the decks of the ships. This allows the adaptation of the Never Mind The Bill Hooks rules to Sea Warfare, without too many changes to the basic rules engine.

Medieval ship to ship warfare!

The detail regarding fighting ship design for this period is about as comprehensive as the detail of the battles of the Wars of the Roses. That is to say, scant, at best! Much of what we know seems to be based on pictures from coins, pictures in manuscripts and carvings in churches. I have purchased the rather lovely book by Susan Rose ( no relation to Mary !) and whilst I am yet to read it properly, the summary seems to confirm that we are very much in the dark as to how Naval combat was fought in detail and how the ships were constructed or operated in battle.

Englands Medieval Navy by Susan Rose

However, before you can have a battle at sea, the first thing that you need is some ships! For the first play test, Andy made some ships up from wooden blocks and cardboard! As you can see, the ships looked pretty effective and not that far away from some of the contemporary illustrations and as a result we were able to play test the new rules.

First play test with ‘mock ups’

I then realised the Sarissa Precision have a very nice medieval cog in their range! So it was time to start building a fleet! You can see my first attempt at building the Sarissa cog in the picture below. I replaced the original mast with a fighting top. The replacement mast is just a plug in piece so I can revert to the original if I please.

The Sarissa Cog with replacement Fighting top

I also wanted to add some galley’s to my fleet but as there was no suitable kit, I decided to have a go at scratch building one. I tried looking for some sort of plan without much success but found plenty of picture references. In the end I decided to build something that looked like a galley and that would be practical when used on the table. The result is certainly not a scale model, nor is it based on an actual galley but is meant to be a representation of the sort of Galley to be found around that time. To be fair it is more like a Mediterranean Galley than an English one but I will use it as a Burgundian Mercenary crew!

My Fleet is growing Galley and Cog ready for battle.

As I’ve had no plans, I have to admit to making it up as I’ve gone along and I have made some more changes to the galley by adding some flags and a mast. I also have a second galley and cog on the work bench. I do intend to publish a step by step guide to making and painting both types of ships and I intend to make a more ‘English’ looking galley based on a Viking ship type hull.

The first two ships are ready for battle! You can see another Galley is under construction.

For now, this Blog entry is more of a taster of the project than a detailed guide. If you fancy having a go at making the Sarissa Cog, I’ll put a link below. The good news is that should you decide that you want to have a go at building your own fleet, Peter Dennis will be releasing a selection of Medieval ships and Galleys in his Paper soldiers range, so you could build a fleet for a very reasonable outlay. I will also publish the plans to the galley along with a step by step guide as to how to make one, either on this blog or possibly in Wargames Illustrated Magazine. My balsa Galleys have cost less than a fiver to make!

Our latest play test!

I’ll also get a battle report from the next play test published that perhaps will give an idea of how ‘Bill Hooks’ rules work in a naval setting. One final thought. There’s no need to build or paint any more figures. We are just using the War of the Roses figures, as you can see. They may not be strictly accurate for some of the early period but the idea is just to have some fun!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – remember that our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop:

ARCANE SCENERY

To see our range of Never Mind The Bill Hooks merchandise click here:

NEVER MIND THE BILL HOOKS

To go straight to the Sarissa Cog, click here:

MEDIEVAL SAILING COG

Happy Modelling!

1 2 3 4 18