Wargaming Girl

After that brief interruption for new shinies, today I return to the series of Army Reviews and move onto my 28mm collections. There aren't as many of these, both in numbers of armies and numbers of figures.

I'm kicking off the 28mm with my Saga Normans:

Warriors

Warriors with crossbows

More Warriors

Mounted Warriors/Hearthguard

Hearthguard

Levy archers

Warlords and standard bearers

The Dux

I really should tart him up with some trim on his tunic and saddlecloth

All the figures here are from Conquest Games - mostly plastics but some metals (archers, crossbowmen and the Dux).

As I very rarely play Saga these days, I'm actually thinking about rebasing one or more of the armies for ADLG. I haven't decided which yet though.. One possibility is to keep the metal figures here for Saga and rebase the plastics for ADLG. Of course, then I'd have to buy some metal Normans for the warriors and hearthguard...

I don't think I mentioned it in my posts earlier this week, but I've been painting up my Norman Dux from Conquest Games since finishing Simon's Spetsnaz. By the way, I handed them over to him on Thursday night at the club and he was mightily pleased with them.

Anyway, back to the Dux. I went for a full-on 3 (or more) layer approach for most of this and finished painting him last night. Then I made the mistake of doing a Klear/ink coat which has obscured some of the highlights and shading. IT still looks good though. Today I've sprayed with matt varnish, then used brush-on satin varnish on the horse flesh and some of the metalwork. Then I finished off the basing with tufts and flocking.

So, some pics.











I had planned to go to Warfare in Reading yesterday or today. Yesterday I was still tired (very busy week at work) so intended to go today instead. Unfortunately I seem to have picked up a cold which kicked in late last night. I was no better this morning, so no Warfare for me. There were a few things I had wanted to pick up, so I'll just have to order them online.

Next up on the painting table will be the Seleucid elephants, followed by the Xystophoroi cavalry.

Post 2 of 4 about Salute. And this is the one with my swag.

I did go along with a shopping list and was able to get evewrything apart from some Oriental scenery from Kerr & King. When prepping for the show, they cast up what they thought people were likely to be after and the Oriental buildings and fortifications weren't on that list. However, I was the 5th or 6th customer asking for them. They did have display pieces for the fortifications which looked pretty damned good, so I will be placing an order over the interweb.

So, piccy time!



First up, some foam trays from Figures In Comfort (for my Saga warbands and X-Wing); a pack of the new Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors; a FoG:R army list book (this is the one with "Buccaneers" - I quite fancy doing a pirate army some time); an X-Wing Tie Fighter expansion (I still can't find an X-Wing expansion for love nor money); a W&N Series 7 #1 brush; a Norman "Dux" figure from Conquest Games; Salute dice from the goodies bag

Some Renedra plastics - wattle fencing and Saxon tents; some stuff from 4Ground - an Anglo-Danish hovel and 3 peasant ox carts; some resin wagon loads; and It's That Man Again - the Dux has snuch into this photo as well!

Some colourful flowery tufts.

Some 15mm grav vehicles from Critical Mass Games - 3 heavy tanks and 3 APCs

That evil man John "Mr GZG" Tuffley parted me from my cash again! This bunch is the Crusties start pack plus a pack of Crusties civilians.

6mm ACW from Baccus - 2 Union infantry booster packs; 2 packs of cavalry (1 x kepi, 1 x hats) and a pack of Parrott rifled artillery. My plan is to do up a good sized force to try out the Polemos rules later this year. I might need to add some more artillery and cavalry later on and get some more flags.

And that's it! I managed to stick within my budget. There were temptations to spend more, but I'd run out of space in my backpack and I didn't think that any more weight was sensible.


"Ahhh, but where's your sprue of the Salute 2013 Jason mini?" you ask. Well, Andres over at Einar Olafson Painting had an impromptu draw on his blog last night. Three lucky folks who commented before 11pm would get their mini assembled and painted by him. As it turned out, I was one of only 3 people who commented so I was a winner!

Andres was painting minis at the Warlord Games stall all day, so I popped over and gave him my sprue. We had a chat and he showed me what he was currently working on - some casualty figures (ECW Scots? Well, definitely Scots, and I presume ECW). They looked fab.

Although I'd sent them in as two separate entries, Curt combined them into a single post last night. My 44 Norman infantry scored me 242 points, whipping me past Ray, JohnM and IanW into 5th spot behind Fran. So, here you go with the pics!

First up, 2 warlords, 2 bannermen and 8 dismounted knights:







And 32 sergeants:







The sergeants have the same shield designs as the mounted knights I'd done previously - well, any knight who could afford to go mounted to battle with his lord would surely be expected to bring a couple of foot soldiers as well.


Prepping the Swiss Pikemen.

The figures I prepped yesterday have been rinsed, dried and glued onto painting sticks. I just need to glue the pikes into their hands now, and riders onto horses (figures for the command stands were in that batch). I'll probably be able to prime them tomorrow evening.

Today I've carried on with figure prep. I've fully prepped 36 pikemen so far and have another 32 that just need to have their hands drilled. The 120 unarmoured pikemen have had their bases filed flat, so they will just need to have any flash/mould-lines cleaned up and their hands drilled.

If I really push on with prepping and priming, I should be able to start painting the pikemen this weekend. Now, you could call me crazy, but I've got this slightly mad idea of trying to paint up all 256 pikemen for my 8 pike units in one go. That would take me well past my 1600 point revised target. If it looks as though I won't make it in time, I can always scale back on the number I'm doing.

The 23 Swiss pikemen I forgot to order have arrived! I really must crack on and get them all prepped and primed, ready for painting. There were a couple of other bits that I ordered at the same time in the packet, but my lips are sealed for the moment.

And my Norman infantry have been posted on Curt's blog. Whoopee! I've gained a massive lead on Ray, and even leaped past IanW and JohnM, putting me in 5th place behind that BFG, Fran.

I'm 286 points away from my revised target (which is double my original target). Can I paint up 143 Swiss infantry in the next 22 days? It's going to be a tough job to do that, but I'll definitely give it a good stab.

The crossbowmen, handgunners and artillery I prepped yesterday have been primed with gesso. This evening I've been prepping some more figures and will probably continue to do so for the rest of this week in the evenings.

My planned Saga game(s) at the club tonight suffered a setback - I woke up this morning with another grotty cold!

Challenge Painting - The Remaining Norms

Having taken Thursday and Friday night off from painting, I finished the first 12 of the Norman infantry (2 warlords, 2 bannermen and 8 "knights" on foot) yesterday. I was in two minds whether to wait until I'd finished the whole lot and submit them together or to send them in as two entries. And then I noticed that my next entry would be the 12th and it seemed appropriate to send in 12 figures for that, so I did. Hopefully the pics will go up on Curt's blog this evening.

I cracked on and finished painting the other 32 figures yesterday, then matt-sprayed and flocked them this morning. I've sent Curt the pics of these as my 13th entry.

What's Next?

Right now I haven't got any figures ready for painting (well, I do have some Swiss pikemen, but I'm waiting for those 23 figures I forgot to order to arrive). So, this afternoon I decided to prep some of the other Swiss in my recent big order - 24 crossbowmen, 24 handgunners, 12 artillery crew, 4 artillery pieces and some bits and bobs. They are currently being washed in warm soapy water. Later on I'll rinse and dry them. I might be able to put them on painting sticks and prime them tonight if things go well.

I will start prepping the pikemen I do have though, so that I can make a quick start on them once the missing 23 arrive. If I've got them prepped and primed by the time I finish the artillery and skirmishers, I'll be able to make a start on these bad boys. I might do them one rank at a time.

I'll also be base-coating a bunch of bases this evening and over the course of the week.


I won't be getting any/much painting done tomorrow as I'm going to the club to play Saga - the first outing for my Norms.

Quick Update

I've finished painting the warlords, bannermen and mailed infantry and they have had their coat of Klear/ink. I've also made good progress on painting the 8 infantry in gambesons and the 24 without any armour. If I'm lucky, I'll have got everything done on these apart from the shield designs by the end of tonight.

I'm in 2 minds as to whether to send them in to Curt all as one batch or to submit them as two entries. Read on for the reason....


Challenge Entry #11: 15mm 30YW Reiters/Harquebusiers and Hakkapeliita

These should have allowed me to jump ahead of Ray, but he'd sent in a batch as well, so is still 2 points ahead of me. Grrr! I'm hoping that my Norman infantry will give me a good lead on him which I can maintain!

Curt posted these yesterday, but here they are on my blog for you pleasure.

First up, a unit of 12 Harquebusiers.


Next up, "Hack them all!". Yes, the dreaded "Hakkapeliita" of the Swedish army. These were Finnish cavalry, whose name comes from their battle cry "Hakka pella" which means "Hack them all!", not a threat to sing without musical accompaniment. They gained a fearsome reputation on the battlefields around the Baltic.

The regiment had its origins in the Nyland knights which became the Nyland and Tavestas Cavalry Regiment in 1629 under Lt Colonel Torsten Stalhandske. At the battle of Breitenfeld (1631) they were on the right wing of the Swedish army and were commanded personally by Gustav Adolf.

The flag is homemade. I had trouble finding the flag they used in the 30YW - I think this one is from late 17th/early 18th century, but it probably hadn't changed greatly in that time.


Hope you like them!

Phew, that's a rather long and possibly confusing post title for you! To explain, it's because there are 4 topics to today's post.